Essay Guidance
Lent Term 2018
©LSE100, 2018 1
Should markets in bodies be constrained or unleashed?
Purpose
Persuasive, evidence-based argumentation is a critical part of the analytical and communications skills you will need
throughout your undergraduate education and in the workplace. Thinking through complex issues, articulating a well-defined
position, and justifying your analysis will develop your ability to offer clear and credible assessments of problems.
Throughout the module, we’ve considered the benefits and limitations of free markets and the ideologies that inform
different views of when governments should intervene. Marketizing bodies, whether through sales of organs or reproductive
services, raises important questions about the moral limits of markets. Is there a difference between offering these goods
and services altruistically and receiving payment for them? Should markets in body parts and services be constrained or
unleashed?
The following guidance invites you to write a persuasive academic essay on the normative and empirical implications of
allowing sales in either organs or surrogacy services. This will be worth 25% of your overall mark for LSE100.
Writing your essay
Please answer one of the following questions. Your essay should be 1400-1600 words long, single-spaced, and saved as a
Word or PDF file.
1) ‘A market in kidneys from living donors should be permitted in order to increase supply and save lives’. Do you
agree? Why or why not? Draw on both normative and empirical arguments in your answer, using resources from
across the module.
2) ‘A market in surrogacy should be permitted in order to meet demand not fulfilled by altruistic surrogacy’. Do you
agree? Why or why not? Draw on both normative and empirical arguments in your answer, using resources from
across the module.
Both essay questions invite a critical engagement with the economic case for marketizing transactions that may be
performed altruistically, namely donating a kidney or providing a surrogacy service. Most jurisdictions forbid the sale of
kidneys and only a few allow women to receive payment for surrogacy services.
Essays should consider both the ethical dimensions and the practical feasibility of allowing and regulating markets in either
kidneys or surrogacy services. This calls for you to bring together normative reasoning (ethics) and empirical analysis
(feasibility). The ethical issue at stake is the question of marketization, not whether kidney transplants or surrogacy should
take place.
Your essay should build directly on the readings, video resources, and work you have done in classes. Strong essays will draw
on the different disciplinary perspectives that we have explored throughout this module.
Resources and referencing
You should draw on a minimum of five resources from the module’s core readings and videos. You may also wish to use the
Further Resources available at the end of each week’s Moodle lesson. The resources from Week 10, which are arranged
thematically, may be particularly helpful. You are welcome to bring in ideas or materials from beyond the course but be
careful to use these to supplement – not replace – the LSE100 materials.
Be sure to include a bibliography citing the readings and resources you have used in your essay. It is fine to use any standard
method of referencing, provided the style is consistent throughout. Guidelines on referencing are available in the LSE100
Resources section of Moodle: https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=650608&chapterid=12305
Citing videos: When you refer to the content of LSE100 videos, you should cite them like any other source. For example:
Lodge, Martin. 2018. “The role of regulation”. Retrieved from the LSE100 Moodle site on 3 March 2018.
https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/mod/lesson/view.php?id=670998&pageid=2216
Essay Guidance
Lent Term 2018
©LSE100, 2018 2
Pre-submission feedback
There are three ways for you to get feedback on your ideas and essay plan prior to submission.
1) Your teacher will offer one-to-one feedback sessions during office hours in Weeks 10 and 11. This is a great
opportunity for individual, informal feedback on your essay plan, so do come along!
2) Classes in Week 11 are optional and will be used for group feedback. This will be a chance for you to discuss ideas
and get feedback on your essay plan from your peers and teachers. You will be marked as present for the Week 11
class if you attend this group feedback session OR a one-to-one meeting with your teacher during office hours.
3) If you would like additional support in the planning stages, you may book an appointment with an LSE100 Writing
Lab adviser. For more information, check out the Writing Lab section of LSE100 Moodle:
https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=650598.
Support is also available from LSE LIFE, where you can book a session with a Study Adviser.
Assessment criteria
In marking your essay, your teacher will assess how well your argument is structured and developed. Remember to use the
thesis-justification-support framework to ensure that your essay contains all the elements of persuasive academic
argumentation.
For more guidance on essay writing and how to construct persuasive arguments, look for the ‘Essay Writing Tutorial’ in the
LSE100 Resources section on Moodle: https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/mod/lesson/view.php?id=650612.
When marking, your teacher will be looking for evidence that you have achieved three of LSE100’s learning objectives:
 Analyse contemporary social problems using theoretical perspectives from more than one discipline
 Identify and critically assess causal claims in social science explanations
 Construct coherent and persuasive arguments on current issues in the social sciences, structuring the arguments
logically and supporting them with the relevant evidence
Submission
You should submit your completed essay and bibliography (which does not count toward the overall word limit) via Turnitin
on Moodle by 12 noon on Monday, 26 March 2018. The submission portal will open one week in advance of this date.
Late submission deadline: 12 noon on Friday, 30 March 2018. If you miss the first deadline, you may still submit via the
assessment submission link on Moodle. Your essay will still be marked, but a penalty of 10 points will be applied.
Submissions received after 12 noon on 30 March will not be
marked, except in cases of approved exceptional
circumstances.
Please remember that all of the work you submit must be
your own. While it can be helpful to talk through initial ideas
with classmates, you must not share your own work or use the
written work of others. It is also essential that you cite your
sources, using any style you wish as long as it is consistent.
Using the ideas of others without attribution is plagiarism.
For more advice on how to avoid plagiarism, consult the
LSE100 Resources section on Moodle here:
https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=650607.
Good luck! We look forward to reading your essay.
How to submit your essay:
1) Save your essay with your LSE ID number as the filename,
e.g. 2017xxxxx.pdf.
2) Log in to the LSE100 2018 Moodle site and go to the
Assessment section. Click on the ‘Essay Submission Link’.
3) Make sure that you have read and understood the
plagiarism declaration. By proceeding to the submission
stage, you are accepting the plagiarism declaration.
4) Click ‘Browse’, locate your file, and upload it to Moodle.
If, before the deadline, you find that you want to revise and
resubmit your work, you can simply re-upload your file and
your previous version will be replaced.