What is the deal about not paying people to donate organs?
It is my body and shouldn’t be anyone’s business if I want to sell parts to the highest bidder.
Aside from the emotional stuff about little Timmy needing a kidney, why not come up with the scratch?
The payola won’t do ME any good, but my family would benefit.
lindsay
My understanding of the current philosophy behind the law is that if you create a market for organs, you create the opportunity for various abuses such as organ theft.
You are certainly free to donate your organs, before or after you die. However, the state and federal government does have the power to regulate commerce, and can (and does) prohibit commerce that is not in the public interest.
Dr. Crane! Your glockenspiel has come to life!
Well, the receipent gets a new lease on life, the surgeons and hospitals get big bucks, the pharmacies make money on the drugs for this donor stuff.
The most essential participant gets nothing but some sappy line about feeling noble about saving a life.
Who cares? I’d rather my family feel $300,000.00 richer. And that is for each organ.
How is this for silly? Pennsylvania is considering paying donor families $300.00 with restrictions on how the money can be spent.
Instead of all the handwringing over how many lives could be saved, I say pony up some scratch.
Nonsense.
lindsay
Have you heard about Donna Shalala’s federal power grab to take over and politicize the highly valued monopoly on the organs/commodities?
Oh, yes, people are paid cash to donate blood and plasma.
Why not organs?
It also seems like it would be in the interest of the public to have more organs made available by paying for them.
lindsay
These threads have some interesting points:
What are some of the potential problems that would arise from selling organs?
Selling of body parts
It’s mine!! Why can’t I sell it?!
Tony Soprano: You know, we’re the only country in the world where the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed in writing… Buncha fucking spoiled brats. Where’s my happiness then?
Dr. Melfi: It’s the pursuit that’s guaranteed.
Tony Soprano Yeah… always a fucking loophole.
One problem that hasn’t been adequately explored is ability to benefit. Organs are allocated based on ability to benefit. Joe Bucks might die on the table, or 2 months later, while poor Bob might have gotten 10 productive years out of the same organ, but he died waiting. Some mercenaries might not care, so long as they, or their families got the check, but some people do.
I thought organs were given based on the area they are donated from?
Seems useless to talk of making a policy change if there are only 17,000 organs donated per year.
The number needing organs is around 68,000.
I don’t know any other way to motivate people but to offer them cash.
lindsay
And therein lies the problem.
If that was truly so then there wouldn’t be any organs being donated.