Should Bone Marrow Donors Be Paid?

This morning as I watched Rock Center, one story caught my attention about an ill child in need of a bone marrow transplant. The mother, Doreen Flynn, waged a legal battle to make it possible for bone marrow donors to be payed for their donations; Flynn thinks because of the money, many more people would be willing to donate. Throughout the years thousands of donors have backed out of bone marrow transplants, but I wonder,  if the donor was paid, would they have gone through with the procedure?

Although there are many arguments for and against Flynn's case, Jeff Rowes (Flynn's Lawyer) argues something that many people wouldn't consider. Rowes argues that, “Bone marrow is just like anything else in the world... it’s valuable. And if you compensate people for it, you’re going to get more of it, it’s just that simple”. Rowes' argument is simple: supply and demand. The more in demand something is, the more it's worth.

Rowes brings up a good point about a constant American ideal of capitalistic solutions for solvable problems. In many cases, people are willing to cooperate more if money is involved for compensation. Unfortunately, this means that the people who would donate for the good will of others, aren't praised for their charity; it's the people who would never donate before that receive the bonus of money.

This is only one example of an "American Way" to solve problems using pure capitalism,  but do you think think market based answers are always an appropriate solution?