House Sponsors (of House of Representatives Bill 5580, which merged with Senate Bill 2048 to become Public Law 98-507, i.e., the 98th Congress's 507th law passed)
Sponsor: Al Gore 
"It is just wrong. It is against our system
of values to buy and sell parts of human beings. It is against our system of
values to auction off life to the highest bidder." - said in response to
the rhetorical question by Hearing Chairman Henry Waxman, "Why not let someone go
into the business of buying and selling organs?" (p.128, Hearings before the
Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House
of Representatives, 98th Congress, 1st session, on H.R. 4080, a bill to amend the Public
Health Service Act to authorize financial assistance for organ procurement organizations
and for other purposes. July 29, October 17 and 31, 1983. Serial No. 98-70,
1984). Apparently the notion of allowing a market only in cadaveric organs, not with
living donors, never occurred to him. All his objections were raised against the
spectre of poor people risking their health for the sake of money. And, the issue of organ
brokers paying for cadaver organs is completely separate from the question of who receives
those organs and who pays for those operations. It was pure grandstanding to rail against
"auctioning off life to the highest bidder." Mr. Gore pays
lip service to the free market: "...we have all learned that the market
system will solve lots of problems if we just stand out of the way and let it work.
It is very true." But, he then adds: "This ought to be an
exception." Ironically, Mr. Gore then likened the freedom to sell
one's organs to slavery, not realizing that his prohibition makes us all
slaves of his federal government, since his law dictates to us what we may not do
with our own bodies: "...you don't want to invest property rights in
human beings. It is just that we have laws against slavery for reasons that is[sic]
not completely dissimilar." Someone should inform Mr. Gore that slavery involved
ownership of other human beings, not ownership of oneself.
Co-Sponsors: (too many to list - 85 in all - only some of the more well-known are listed here)
- Henry A.Waxman
- John Conyers
- Tom Harkin
- Barbara Boxer
- Barney Frank
- Charles Rangel
