介绍： There are more than 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States. According to the National Kidney Foundation, 14 new patients join that list every minute.

People can donate one of their kidneys and lead a healthy life afterward. But donation rates are far from meeting the need.

So wh...

介绍： There are more than 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States. According to the National Kidney Foundation, 14 new patients join that list every minute.

People can donate one of their kidneys and lead a healthy life afterward. But donation rates are far from meeting the need.

So what if donors were compensated with money?

"You own your kidney, you own it securely enough that you could give it to me if you wished, but you can't sell it to me," says Stanford economist Alvin Roth.

It is illegal in the United States to sell a kidney to another person. Similar bans exist in nearly every other country in the world. Alvin has coined a term to classify taboo exchanges like buying and selling organs: repugnant transactions.

"It's a transaction that some people would like to engage in, and other people don't think they should be allowed to, even if it's hard to see how those other people are harmed," he says.

This week on Hidden Brain, we discuss a range of so-called repugnant transactions, from kidney sales to poor dinner party etiquette. And we'll explore the factors that can turn a repugnant transaction into an acceptable one.