why cant we sell our organs?

[p0ink]

over 80,000 americans die each year waiting for an organ transplant of some sort, and never get it because there simply arent enugh to go around. even with this being such a problem, it is still illegal to sell one's organs. can someone please explain the rationale behind this to me? if people were allowed to sell their organs, this wouldnt be an issue, but for some fucked up reason, it is illegal to do so. why?

 

[Citruscide]

Think of the public policy involved and the never ending snowball effect that would take place if one were allowed to sell their organs...

People would be jacking others for their organs, black market rules would start applying, mothers children would become incompacitated and the mother would sell her soon to die children's organs...

Sure, the concept, to give one's organ to help another human being is noble... but to sell it, to give someone the option to profit... it could force people in debt to sell their kidney to pay off accounts... would debtors start securing rights to kidneys or livers?

It's a slippery slope... and to limit it to "only sell your own organs" ... it just can't be done like that. Have to look at it from ALL angles my man.

C

 

[p0ink]

no, i dont think one should be able to sell them while they are alive. i think it should be like the donor program, only you get paid. it should be like a life insurance policy type thing. once you are dead, they take your organs and pay your family what they are worth. not only would their be a monetary incentive, but one for staying healthy as well.

 

[Citruscide]

I see your point. But I think the general public consensus would see it to be morbid to sell ones organs off in death and to profit from it. Even though a life insurance policy is in effect the same thing, you aren't profiting from human organs. Also, Many people could not afford the organs if they were to be sold and health care wouldn't be able to pick up the price.

I suppose you could insure your organs... that way you'd get what the "market value" would be. .. same end, different means.

C

 

[p0ink]

but dont poor people drive cars? they get the money from loans, why cant they take out loans to get an organ? plus with more organs on the market, the lower the price would be and the more affordable it would be for the 'less fortunate.'

 

[Citruscide]

Take loans out to get organs? LOL Have you seen some of the cars that poor people drive? Would a poor person only get a 3,000 dollar kidney and a rich person would get the fully healthy 50,000 dollar kidney? If so, then we are placing a higher value on money than we are on human life... which is not only morbid, but horrible.

I see your point, and your intentions are good, but if the selling of organs were to come about, you (we) would need to find a better way of doing it so that everyone would have an equal opportunity to get them, costs would not be outragious, and there would not be any undue pressure for people to sell or possibly put other humans in "death's way" in order to become the beneficary of their organ estate.

C

 

[p0ink]

plus, i think it would help in the grieving process. say you were to die and your fiance was talking with the doctor and the following conversation transpired:

doctor: mrs. citruscide, i'm terribly sorry about your loss, but we have to discuss the matters of his organs...

mrs citruscide: oh no doctor! i want him going out the way he came into this world, completely intact.

doctor: ma'm, we're prepared to offer you 200,000 for each kidney...

mrs citruscide: wow! really? what else do you guys need? do you need his legs too? shit, cut those motherfuckers off...

see, it would allow your wife to move on and the grief period be alot shorter, as morbid as it sounds.

 

[Citruscide]

LOL... true. I would feel much better knowing I would leave behind a couple hundred thousand for my loved ones. But you're looking at this from only one angle... you're not seeing the forest for the trees, you're... well, hopefully getting my point.

Also, I believe that even on the black market, reports show that kidneys sell for around $50,000 if fully healthy and functional.

Sure, in your scenario it is a great result. But what about the fiance or wife that some how sets up her husbands/fiance's death in order to profit from the sale of the organs? Sure, she may get caught, but the murder has already taken place...

That is only ONE other aspect to consider.

If you'd want to get 'my' support to legalize your version of organ sale, you'd need to come up with some sort of plan that would cover any such eventuality... I can't think of anything that wouldn't deter such horrific behavior, as I know how humans think... greedy, greedy humans.

I think an insurance plan that covers the value of your organs would be the most ethical approach, and it would also comfort my fiance in the event of my demise.... plus, I'd leave this world as I came into it.... ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

C

 

[WODIN]

People should be able to sell thier organs for profit and fun!

You could make a system where people have to register a gentic ID into a "market" and only with a genetic match could lets say a liver be sold by the owner into the system.

Why should doctors be the only ones to profit from organ transplants?

Anyone want to buy a kidney?

$ 3.5 million....going once..........

There was an ebay auction about 2 years ago that got shut down, the biding hit over 1.5 mil... Amazing.

 

[casavant]

Dude, can you imagine the black market that would inevitably emerge from that? People would be waking up in bathtubs full of ice all over the place.

Shit, some criminals would probably go into third world countries and have harvesting sessions.

Yucky.