OK, a few New Jersey gonifs made a killing on a kidney. They made another killing on counterfeit Gucci handbags, but that’s a different story. Look at the economics of the kidney transaction. They bought the kidney from a homeless wretch in some dusty third world country. They provided the surgery and gave him $10,000 besides, probably more money than he would make in his entire lifetime.

They carefully transported the kidney half way across the world to New Jersey where they sold it for $100,000 to somebody who presumably needed to have it installed.

Now that looks like a big mark up, but consider the going price for a legally obtained kidney in this country is up to $180,000, if you can find one. In India, by contrast, the whole thing can be put together with a legal kidney for only $20,000. In China, you can get a kidney for less than $10,000 from a fresh-killed prisoner. But let’s not consider that because it is likely an unwilling donation. In Iran it would cost you $6,000. But there are other reasons you can’t go there.

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So the donor got “rich,” the recipient got a heck of a bargain (saved $60,000), and the broker made a handsome profit. Did they cheat the donor? No, the price paid was the top of the market for such organs in the place where the donor lived. A win-win-win deal. If they had brought the patient to the kidney instead of the other way around, the FBI wouldn’t be bothered and the recipient could have saved $80,000 for the kidney.

Now, folks, let’s be realistic. When you get a kidney for transplant, you know you are getting a used kidney. Does it matter if it was used by a nun or a slum dweller? No. Does it matter if it came from a live but willing donor or a dead and indifferent cadaver? Yes. The live kidney is more likely to be a successful transplant than the dead one. So from the git-go, the $10,000 kidney is likely a better kidney than the high-priced ones.

Bigger issue: Why is it illegal to deal in kidneys? There are 1.8 million people in the world waiting for kidneys. Dialysis is unpleasant, temporary and expensive. It can cost more than a transplant. If the donor sold his sperm or her eggs, nobody would be upset. It the product was the person’s hair, no foul. If a woman wanted to rent her womb out by the day, week or month as a surrogate gestator, that would be fair dinkum.

Most people have a kidney to spare so why prohibit the sale? It is the inability to compensate donors that has created a shortage of transplant organs. Transplants that come from a cadaver are in acute short supply. And living donors usually confine their donations to close relatives.

Right now, organ processing and distribution companies obtain over $100,000 for a body and its parts. They don’t sell the organs, they charge for preparation. That’s pretty close to the line, but it is tolerated.

Suppose a company came to you and offered you $20,000 today for both your kidneys whenever you die? What if they offered you $100,000 today for your whole body when you are through with it? Of course it would depend on your age and health. In any event, that would release many organs into the supply lines and actually reduce the price. Why shouldn’t the owner of a body be free to sell his parts? If anybody is going to make money off my body, it should be me.

People needing organs now can go to Asia (Singapore, Thailand, India, even China) and get transplants for about 10 percent of the cost in the United States. Or you can deal with underworld rabbis for black market organs. Or we can legalize organ sales and free up the market to distribute them. The free market again offers the best solution. Counterfeiting Gucci handbags, however, is indefensible.

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.newflashpoint.com.