“Seven body parts you can sell” sounds like a darkly funny money list. Legally, it mixes completely different things: organs, tissue, reproductive cells, plasma, hair and reimbursement for donation expenses.
The rules depend on country. The clearest way to explain the boundary is to use the United States as an example and separate selling an organ from being compensated for time, inconvenience or certain biological materials.
Kidneys, livers and other transplant organs are not legal merchandise
U.S. federal law prohibits buying or selling human organs for transplantation. Living donation is legal — including kidney donation and, in some circumstances, partial liver donation — but the organ itself is donated, not sold.
Programs may reimburse eligible expenses associated with living donation. That is fundamentally different from putting a price on the organ.
Some biological donations can involve compensation
Source plasma
FDA rules recognize both paid and volunteer donors. Commercial plasma centers may compensate donors, while products intended for transfusion are subject to different labeling and collection rules.
Egg donation
U.S. fertility programs may compensate oocyte donors. Professional ethics guidance emphasizes that compensation should be fair and should not become an undue inducement that undermines informed consent.
Sperm donation
Reproductive cells are regulated as human cells or tissues for donor screening and testing. Compensation practices vary by program and jurisdiction.
Hair
Cut hair is ordinary personal property rather than a transplant organ. It can be donated or sold for wigs and extensions, subject to the buyer’s quality requirements.
“Paid” does not always mean “the body part was sold”
Compensation can be structured around time, inconvenience, travel, procedures or participation in a regulated donation program. The legal and ethical distinction matters because organ markets create concerns about coercion, exploitation and unequal access to transplantation.
Your body is not a spare-parts shop
In the U.S., transplant organs cannot legally be bought or sold. Some other donations — such as source plasma or reproductive cells — can involve compensation under specific rules. The distinction is not a loophole; it is the entire story.