Regarding the cancelled sale of the kidney on ebay…should people be allowed to sell parts of their bodies? Or should it be stopped?
If you can’t convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. Truman
I really should proofread before I post…
wait! my s doesn’t work…thats the ticket!
Well, this post has sure gone to 'ell!
Anyway, I think that E-Bay, as a private website, can certainly dictate what goes through it’s cyber-walls.
But overall, I think that you should be able to sell anything you want, but the catch there is having to pay the doctors to perform the operation and all costs surrounding it.
I think this would do much more dissuading of organ-selling than drive the price up!
Yer pal,
Satan
We can sell blood, eggs, sperm, and in the past, you could even sell your hair. I think you should be able to sell your organs if you want to.
You still can sell your hair…they don’t want our overwashed overprocessed hair, though, they get it in its “natural state” from less developed countries. More “processed” hair is too brittle to sew into wigs.
Can you still sell blood in the US? I thought they outlawed that because drug addicts were selling their blood and they were getting too much unsuitable blood from them.
“Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.”
- Bertrand Russell
Would “elling” be what elelle does?
I’d swear there was an earlier thread on this, but I can’t find it now. Maybe somebody more enterprising will identify it.
Just call me Ms. Enterprising…
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000315.html
“Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.”
- Bertrand Russell
Thanks, Ms. Enterprising!
I started donating blood just as AIDS was coming to light. Consequently, I’ve never seen anyplace that buys blood. (About the closest I’ve seen is free cookies, pizza, and juice.)
IMO, the type of people who only donate blood for money are likely to lie on the questionaire just to get their $5. Even though each unit is tested no matter what the donor says, one mistake is enough to let a bad unit in.
For those that have never given blood, donor centers have a list of about 30 questions they ask every time you donate. Some are quite personal, and some are probably loathe to share the info. Men’s questions include: [ul]
[li]Have you had sex with another man even once since 1977?[/li][li]Have you every paid someone for sex in the last 12 months?[/li][li]Have you taken intervenous drugs?[/li][li]Have you had sex with someone who has taken intervenous drugs in the last 12 months?[/li][/ul]
The questions are asked in private, and the phlebologist is a professional that won’t tell anyone. But if someone were desperate enough for the money, they could easily lie.
There is a special sticker you can put on your form that confidentially tells them that they shouldn’t use your blood (it’s a bar code, they scan it at some point after you’ve given blood). That way you can still give blood if, say, you want the money (assuming they still do this) or if you’re doing it as part of a company thing and don’t want co-workers to see that you got rejected. They’ll just scan the bar code and toss the blood; hopefully any high-risk person will mark it “don’t use”, since then they’ll still get paid and they won’t have to put anyone at risk.
In Ireland they used to give out pints of Guinness after you gave blood. It has a lot of iron (Guinness–for strength). Wish they did that here in the states.
“Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.”
- Bertrand Russell
There is a science fiction author, Larry Niven, who wrote books concerning a rather interesting future version of human history that I found both thoughtful and well researched. In his books, prior to the eventual discovery of growing spare body parts, they had found ways to transplant any part of the human body without having to worry about little things like matches, rejection or having to take anti-rejection drugs forever.
Since the demand for body parts could not be met several things happened.
The first was a law passed by the general public, hungry for spare parts, which made little things like too many speeding tickets, violent assault, trespassing, and so on punishable by death. The death penalty was carried out quickly by removing the brain, then storing the dismembered body for transplants. The second was the legalization of suicide, done in a form where the body could be salvaged for future use. Then came organlegging, where criminals kidnapped people, killed them and sold off their body parts.
If the selling of body parts becomes legal, the first thing which will happen is that the poor and desperate will become victims, finding that they can make money by being chopped up. Organized crime will encourage this, finding that they can make millions by ‘buying’ organs cheaply and selling them to those who can afford to pay high prices for them. I think I read somewhere that overseas, in China, people can sell their body parts, which are then offered on the international market. Naturally, the desperately poor are the first to be coaxed into this for a minimal fee.
To allow free, virtually unregulated enterprise of this form would encourage the wealthy to take advantage of those whom many of them already consider surplus, disposable population. (See Michael Moore’s ‘ROGER and ME,’ the party scene) Plus there would be the inevitable flood of less than desirable organs placed on the market, which would no doubt eventually lead to a decrease in checking the donor and the organ for transmittable diseases. (See the various reports on the reluctance of the American Blood banks to apply tests for AIDS to their supplies in the early era of the AIDS plague)
Also consider the human nature of some of the medical professionals who would willingly buy and transplant a less than desirable organ for a fee. (See the current reports of pharmacies buying stolen drugs often of questionable quality cheaply and reselling them for a high price to customers)
Without some major form of control applied to the selling and distribution of organs, all forms of nasty things can happen. (See the current news reports about home dentistry practices, illegal, found in areas with large populations of poor immigrants in the US)
Mark
Organized crime will encourage this, finding that they can make millions by ‘buying’ organs cheaply and selling them to those who can afford to pay high prices for them.
You’re forgetting a few key facts:
Removal of organs is serious surgery, and must be done by an actual surgeon in a hospital-quality operating room. I doubt there is any criminal organization that has access to anything of that nature.
The donor and recipient must be carefully matched in order for there to be a reasonable chance of the organ not being rejected.
Organs can be kept alive for only a few days. If the mob somehow did get ahold of someone’s organ, they’d have to find a buyer pretty quickly.
Conclusion: If selling organs were legalized, the mob could pretty much forget about getting a piece of the action.
And another thing: If selling body parts were legalized, the government would invariably place strict regulations on the organ trade.
Hey, if you can sell one organ for that much, imagine what a whole body would sell for!! When I die, I’ll sell my whole body piecemeal to the world. Hey, extra tax-free inheritance for me kiddies.
Draft me and I’ll AWOL. Imprison me and I’ll run. Shoot me and I won’t die, just to annoy you.
Gaudere wrote:
I don’t know about blood, but at least in Utah, you can sell blood plasma for about $10 a session, with two sessions a week maximum. They won’t let me donate, though, because I’m on a drug cocktail for schizophrenia. Darn it, I could use that money.