The Trunk

The Reality of Reality

I think you missed the point, Jeff. It’s not about rich people getting kidneys and poor people not getting them. It’s about rich people getting them AT THE EXPENSE of poor people. It’s more like being able to save either the rich person or the poor person and choosing the rich person because they’re rich.

You might have a nice high price for your kidney, and you might be an informed seller, and you might not ever get taken advantage of. But why would anyone buy your kidney for $8 million when they could get it for less elsewhere. Why not buy it from the homeless person on corner for $10,000, or even $1000?

But that’s precisely the point. There are people for whom $10,000 could change their lives. It can buy shelter, and a suit, and some food, and maybe a class or two. Who can say that it isn’t worth a kidney? You can say it for yourself, but can you say it for someone else?

You and Squashed think you are being compassionate toward the guy who wants to sell his kidney, but it’s not compassion—it’s cruelty. He has a potential path out of poverty, and you want to block it. If you think it’s an awful path, give him a better one, so that the kidney sale looks less attractive.

What’s to stop people from selling organs that aren’t their own? I think the likely problems are far more massive than you pretend they are.

The law. Just like it prohibits people from selling cars that aren’t their own. If someone takes a kidney from you, they’ve broken enough laws to put them in jail for years. I suspect that if there is a legal market for organs, people will be far less likely to turn to an illegal market for them. It’s just like the drug war … if you legalize pot, you won’t have to buy from a criminal.

Selling your eggs or sperm is very VERY unlikely tou any problems in the future. You’re not going to die from it, but you very well MIGHT die from selling a kidney, or part of your liver.

That’s true. You might also die driving a bus or flying a plane. Police, firemen, the military … lots of people do things that are dangerous in exchange for money. Most people think it’s okay to do something dangerous if it helps others. Giving up a kidney helps others—it saves a life.

I can’t believe this discussion exists. It’s all fine and good to discuss in the abstract, but the reality of the situation is probably not how you imagine it.

But the reality of reality is that people are dying and they don’t have to. Politicians aren’t doing anything about this. We need to discuss ways to stop this. If that means talking about things that make us uncomfortable, then we do it, because the stakes are huge.

Source: squashed