Thursday, October 16, 2008

Markets in everything: Bulgarian blood edition

Surely this would be a fine edition to the Markets in Everything series: in Bulgaria, apparently black market blood dealers stand outside of hospitals and vend their wares.

As in Russia and some other Balkan nations, corruption has seeped into the fabric of life. Sofia has a thriving black market for blood outside hospitals, where patients’ families haggle over purchases with dealers, according to Bulgarian news reports that track the prices.

Black market trade in human medical parts is not at all unique to Bulgaria. See here for a WSJ discussion of the ethics and economics of the human organ trade.

No comments: