The first answer can only be one: priceless. Even because, although popular wisdom says that everyone has their price and that selling the body is the “oldest profession in the world”, selling human organs is a crime in most countries – in Brazil, it can take from three to eight years jail for the “traders” and from one to six years for the doctors involved. “By Brazilian law, the body, alive or dead, in whole or in each of its parts, is res extra commercium, that is, out of the market”, explains physician Marcos de Almeida, a specialist in bioethics at Unifesp. But, despite the legal barrier, there are people who make money with some body parts, not only on the black market (where a kidney can be sold for more than 20,000 reais), but also through legal channels: in the United States and in some In other countries, those who donate semen, eggs, blood and breast milk receive a cash bonus. In addition, we calculate how much the “raw material” of the human body costs. Surprise yourself with its value in the tables below.
BLOOD PLASMA
UNIT VALUE – A machine takes the blood, separates the plasma – the liquid part of the blood – and injects the rest back into the body. In Brazil, there is no payment, but in the US, those who donate receive about 50 reais for the good deed
ANNUAL INCOME – A permanent donor collects up to 5 thousand reais
OVA
UNITARY VALUE – There is no Brazilian “market” for eggs. In the US, a single donation – each procedure extracts several eggs – can yield 11,000 reais
ANNUAL INCOME – The American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends that a woman donate eggs no more than six times in her lifetime. Following the advice, she can earn more than 60 thousand reais…
SEMEN
UNITARY VALUE – In Brazil, you don’t pay for any; in the US, the “prize” per donation is around 150 reais. But to be approved in the sperm bank, the donor undergoes rigorous health tests.
ANNUAL INCOME – Donating once a week, you can earn 7,500 reais in a year
HAIR
UNITARY VALUE – It is the only item on the list that can be sold in Brazil: 150 grams of strands 40 centimeters long are worth at least 180 reais – but you can earn more than 700 reais, depending on the quality and length of the hair
ANNUAL INCOME – In a year you can only donate once. Short wires have no market value
MILK
UNIT VALUE – Zero. Human milk banks, here or in the US, only accept donations
ANNUAL INCOME – Only loss… Milk banks like the one in San Jose, California, charge 20 cents per milliliter of milk. A 5-kilogram baby who needs to resort to the milk bank spends 150 reais a day, easy, easy…
At the request of , biochemist Etelvino Bechara, from USP, separated the essential “ingredients” from the body of a 70-kilogram human being and found the cheapest prices for them on the market*
DNA (0.02% of the body)
13.2 g of placental DNA = 9.7 million reais
FAT (20%)
14 kg of stearic acid = 400 reais
PROTEIN (15.2%)
11 kg of bovine serum albumin = 38 thousand reais
MINERALS (5.6%)
3.9 kg of calcium, magnesium and zinc phosphates, and sodium and potassium chlorides = 1,050 reais
SUGARS (1.6%)
1.1 kg of starch = 410 reais
WATER (57.6%)
40 liters of mineral water = 15 reais
TOTAL = 9 MILLION AND 740 THOUSAND REAIS
*Quotation based on Sigma-Aldrich catalog prices, a multinational that sells chemical products
Read too:
– The 10 best professions to have after you die
– What are the functions of water in the human body?
– How does the human body decompose?