Private Ordering and Intimate Spaces: Why the Ability to Negotiate is Non-Negotiable

This review moves beyond a critique of Cherry’s study to incorporate a radical new way of thinking about organ commodification as a social justice issue. Part I provides a brief empirical overview of organ demand in the United States, offering an alternative perspective and introducing data illexamined in commodification debates. Part II challenges the notion that private ordering abandons liberal and egalitarian values in favor of individualism over communitarianism. It also acknowledges the limitations of private ordering and addresses how its more problematic features, including the abuse of power, might be avoided. Part III argues for a hybrid system that reorders regulation of intimate spaces. It proposes a system that allows incentives to coincide with altruistic donation. Finally, Part IV contends that the discussion of commodification needs to change in order to incorporate all members of society. Only after we change the discussion from whether or not to commodify to what degree of commodification is socially acceptable will this incorporation happen.