We’ve all heard the jokes about selling your kidney to afford an iPhone. Unfortunately, no one I know has ever really done that. And probably no one you know either.
But don’t worry, if you are planning to sell off one kidney to finance your next iPhone, here’s all the economics you need to know.
Of course, we’ll assume you’re planning to buy the latest and greatest model, since anything less wouldn’t really be worth the kidney sacrifice. So how many handsets of the upcoming iPhone X can you buy for the price of one of your kidneys? Can you even buy one?
Well, the very first hurdle is legality. Organ donation for commercial profit is illegal in every country in the world except one – Iran. Illegal organ trade is highly prevalent in black markets around the world. But since we don’t condone any illegal activities here at Trove 42, we’ll stick to Iran.
So you would necessarily have to sell your kidney in Iran! We’ll assume you can arrange that without excessive financial costs. So we’re not going to consider any traveling or other overhead costs.
According to the Wikipedia article on the kidney trade in Iran, the average price a donor gets for a kidney is between $2000 and $4000. The iPhone X is going to release at $999. So you should be able to buy between 2 to 4 iPhone X by donating 1 of your kidneys.
Of course, the amounts paid to donors vary and not every kidney is worth the same. So do make sure to keep your kidney in top condition before selling it off1
