The market model is reasonable in situations where it is possible to estimate prospectively the value of the tissues. This would apply to donation of blood and gametes, as well as less common scenarios such as that of Ted Slavin. But for the vast majority of tissue donations, this is not the case. In most situations, the true market value of the tissue – if any – may not be fully known until years after the actual donation. Furthermore, most specimens currently in biobanks have no value in isolation – their value comes instead from being part of the larger collection.
