# Resolve this! \[Organ harvesting condemned prisoners\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 1, 2008, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645 "2008-11-01T22:59:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/21 "2008-11-02T15:39:22Z")
Considering simple biological imperatives, i.e. the preservation of self, it might seem logical to put one’s own survival above that of others at all costs; however, widening this somewhat narrow scope to the survival of _social_ species (as a whole), such behaviour can easily be argued to be contraindicated, seeing as how a society needs widely accepted rules and mores that individuals can rely on to function – if it were right for anybody to commit murder to ensure their personal survival, everybody would become a potential thread to one’s own survival, and you might as well kill them just to be sure. It’d escalate, and undermine the society’s stability. So no, it isn’t right to kill an innocent person for self-preservation; somebody killed in self-defence isn’t innocent, but guilty of threatening another’s life. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/22 "2008-11-02T15:42:46Z")
> [@Riddle\_doodle\_do](#): > > Riddle me this: Any one of us would kill another innocent man to save our lives. But none of us will go to China for a Falun Gong to be murdered for his organs, when this would save our lives indeed. > > Contradiction, no? Why do you think none of us would go to China for Falun Gong organs (even if such existed)? There’s already a thriving international trade on organs going on. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/23 "2008-11-02T16:02:13Z")
I have a sneaking suspicion that Riddle doodle doo him/herself is a Falun Gong whack job trying to be clever. And no, they don’t deserve to be persecuted, but yes, they are whack jobs who believe their founder can fly, that homosexuality is evil, that mixed-race children suffer a tainted spiritual life and that space aliens visit the Earth. Sorry to jump in, but based on my experience on other boards with these folks, it’s best to get all that out into the open beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/24 "2008-11-02T18:36:59Z")
> [@Riddle\_doodle\_do](#): > > Any one of us would kill another innocent man to save our lives. No, _we_ wouldn’t.\* You\* might, but _I_ wouldn’t even kill a _guilty_ man to save my own life. ---
**Author:** ![Ted\_Y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c77e96/32.png) [@Ted\_Y](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ted_Y)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/25 "2008-11-02T21:15:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > No, _we_ wouldn’t.\* You\* might, but _I_ wouldn’t even kill a _guilty_ man to save my own life. Really? If you watched a man sever the heads of your family and friends and you had a loaded gun in front of you, you wouldn’t shoot him? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/26 "2008-11-02T23:48:32Z")
> [@Riddle\_doodle\_do](#): > > I will restate the riddle: > > How can it be wrong to have someone murdered so that you might live? > > It cannot. > > So what is wrong with stealing prisoner’s organs? Still doesn’t make any sense. I realise you’re playing this whole ‘riddle’ persona thing, but for the sake of clarity, please just plainly state your argument. It is wrong to have someone murdered, regardless whether your motive is to save your life, merely take his wallet, or just because you don’t like the pattern on his shirt. Murder is when you kill someone wrongfully. There are times when people kill other people and it is not classified as murder, however. I’m not saying that makes it right or wrong to harvest organs afterwards, but it seems like you’re comparing apples and orangutans here. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/27 "2008-11-03T17:24:16Z")
> [@Ted\_Y](#): > > Really? If you watched a man sever the heads of your family and friends and you had a loaded gun in front of you, you wouldn’t shoot him? No, I wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/28 "2008-11-03T17:30:27Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > No, I wouldn’t. Would you steal bread from him to feed the severed heads of your friends and family? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/29 "2008-11-03T17:53:39Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Would you steal bread from him to feed the severed heads of your friends and family? 🙂 Are the heads trapped in a car that’s about to explode? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/30 "2008-11-03T20:04:12Z")
It’s not okay to kill innocent people who are no threat to us. I also don’t believe it’s okay to kill guilty people who are no threat to us. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/31 "2008-11-03T20:10:02Z")
It’s not okay to kill innocent people who are no threat to us. I also don’t believe it’s okay to kill guilty people who are no threat to us. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645/32 "2008-11-04T00:38:07Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > 🙂 > > Are the heads trapped in a car that’s about to explode? Is the car on a treadmill? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolve-this-organ-harvesting-condemned-prisoners/470645.md?page=1)