When German filmmaker and journalist Peter Scharf stumbled upon a book by author Jörn Klare titled Was Bin Ich Wert? (translated as How Much Am I Worth?), he couldn’t help but feel compelled to turn the book’s darkly fascinating subject into a film.
Klare’s research dives into one of the most unsettling questions you can ask: How much is a human body worth?
This question is not only about the obvious—how much we cost in terms of insurance or healthcare—but also about the much more shadowy and disturbing side of black market organ trading.
Scharf’s journey across Europe, exploring this chilling topic, led him to uncover an unequal, disturbing, and often downright horrifying picture of how society assigns value to human beings.
The answers ranged from the legally accepted to the deeply unethical, showing that our worth as humans is often dictated not by our intrinsic value but by our economic potential and marketability.
But don’t expect a straightforward answer—because as Scharf found, the value of a life can change drastically based on where you’re from, what you do for a living, and even what part of your body someone is willing to buy.
Let’s unpack the many layers of this uncomfortably fascinating subject, and perhaps you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of how the human body is treated as a commodity in the modern world.
The Startling Price Tag on Your Body’s Components
What if you could rebuild your body from scratch?
It’s a bizarre thought, but Scharf’s exploration begins with a simple question: How much would it cost to source all the molecules that make up your body?
Jan Vollmer, a writer at Motherboard, takes us through the process.
Scharf’s research shows that if you wanted to buy all the essential molecular components of your body from a local pharmacy, you’d be looking at around $1,900.
The biggest chunk of this expense comes from purchasing the carbon in your body, which makes up about 20% of your mass.
That’s $1,000 just for the carbon content, a striking amount when you consider the relatively low cost of other elements like oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen that make up the rest of us.
But the real question is—why would you want to purchase your body in pieces, even if it was possible?
The more important insight Scharf uncovers lies in the difference between rebuilding a human and actually valuing a human.
And that brings us to the darker, more disturbing reality: the value of your body is much more than just the cost of its chemical ingredients.
Are Your Organs Just Another Commodity?
Here’s where things start to get uncomfortable: The value of your organs on the black market.
When Scharf was filming in a Moldavian village, he met three men who had sold their kidneys for just $2,292 each.
To put this into perspective, that’s less than a car in many parts of the world.
But what about the person receiving the kidney?
The costs skyrocket.
If someone wants to buy an illegally transplanted kidney, they would be expected to pay anywhere from $80,000 to $200,000, depending on where the organ comes from and who’s performing the surgery.
That’s a massive markup—but it doesn’t stop there.
Once the deal is made, the buyer faces a significant risk: the organ could be rejected, and unlike with a legitimate medical procedure, there’s no refund policy in the black market.
So, who profits the most?
The doctors performing the surgery?
Not really.
According to Scharf, the biggest profits are actually pocketed by the intermediaries—the shady brokers who facilitate these deals.
These figures are the true beneficiaries of the illegal organ trade, manipulating both the desperate sellers and the wealthy buyers.
Scharf estimates that if you were to sell your entire set of organs on the black market, they would fetch around a staggering $2.1 million.
But of course, it’s not like most of us are considering donating or selling organs illegally. So, let’s look at the legal routes to profit from your body.
Hair, Blood, and Plasma
For those who are curious about making a little extra cash off your biological materials without breaking the law, there are some legal avenues, though they won’t make you a millionaire.
For example, selling hair can bring in a modest sum.
In Ukraine, Scharf discovered that 100 grams of human hair could sell for around $76. And then there’s the more common route—donating blood and plasma.
Regular donations can actually add up to nearly $1,000 per year, depending on how frequently you donate and where you are located.
While the amounts aren’t exactly life-changing, these activities are still tied to a larger question: How does society value the human body, and what is it willing to pay for?
From hair to plasma to kidneys, our bodies are being commodified in ways that are difficult to ignore.
How Much Are You Worth to the Government?
Now that we’ve explored how the black market and legal options influence the perceived value of human bodies, we have to look at how governments place a price tag on human life.
In Scharf’s research, he uncovered a chilling discrepancy in how governments compensate families for loss, particularly in the aftermath of tragic events.
Take the 9/11 attacks in the United States, for instance.
The U.S. government paid out a total of $5.5 billion to the families of victims.
At first glance, this might sound like a significant sum.
But when you break it down, the differences between payouts are striking: $5.5 million was given to the family of a deceased banker, while the family of a deceased dishwasher only received $197,000—a figure based on how much the individual was projected to earn in their lifetime.
This stark discrepancy between the value assigned to different professions speaks volumes about how life is commodified.
It’s not about how much a person matters or the depth of their contributions—it’s about how much they were expected to earn.
For comparison, more than a decade earlier, victims of the Eschede train disaster in Germany received an average of just $19,101 in compensation.
This amounts to a small fraction of what the U.S. government paid out after 9/11, and once again highlights how our economic potential determines the financial value placed on our lives.
Can We Ever Truly Quantify Life’s Worth?
So here’s where we need to challenge our assumptions.
We’ve seen how our bodies are commodified—whether it’s the value of an organ on the black market or the price tag attached to our lives by governments.
But let’s be clear: Can we ever really put a price on human life? And should we?
As Scharf’s film Was Bin Ich Wert? delves into the commodification of human life, it forces us to reflect on a disturbing reality: Our worth is often defined by others, based on factors like economic potential, physical attributes, and marketable parts.
Whether we’re discussing insurance payouts, black market organ prices, or compensation after tragedies, the common thread is that life is measured by what it can contribute rather than the intrinsic value of being human.
The real value of human life goes far beyond a price tag—whether it’s financial, physical, or even emotional.
But as long as society continues to treat our bodies as commodities, that value will continue to be negotiated, traded, and commodified.
Watch the chilling trailer for Was Bin Ich Wert? and read more about Scharf’s eye-opening investigation into human worth on Motherboard.
