USA: NJ man sues for right to sell his organs, argues 1984 law banning organ trade is unconstitutional

114,000 Americans are waiting on a waiting list for a vital organ transplant Says Fox News

John Bellocchio, a career academic who now runs a service dog business throughout Appalachia, first got interested in potentially selling a kidney or another organ after running into financial difficulty, but says he was shocked to learn it is illegal.

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 makes it “unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation.”

Bellocchio filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, arguing that the ban on the organ trade violates his freedom to contract and interferes with his ability to do with his own property, in this case, his body, as he sees fit.

John Bellocchio filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to overturn the 1984 banning the legal trade of organs. (John Bellocchio)

John Bellocchio filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to overturn the 1984 banning the legal trade of organs. (John Bellocchio)

“‘My body, my choice,’ shouldn’t just be for abortion,” Matthew Haicken, Bellocchio’s lawyer, told Fox News. “It’s your God-given organs. It’s yours.”

Bellocchio said he thinks the fight to declare the 1984 ban on the organ trade unconstitutional cuts across all political lines.

“This is by and large a very bipartisan, if not apolitical, effort,” Bellocchio said. “And it should be because this affects the health and well-being and livelihood of millions in America and throughout the world.”

Read more  https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-jersey-lawsuit-merrick-garland-organ-trade