Cash for Kidneys?
In a move that is likely to stir debate, medical and public policy groups are suggesting some fundamental changes in the way we regard organ transplantation.
Consider the case at a New York medical center where a woman and her brother were both operated on at the same time. One of the woman’s kidneys was removed, but not for transplanting into her brother. Instead her organ went to a man she had never met.
At the same time, another woman had her kidney removed to give to the first woman’s brother (once again donor and recipient had never met). This idea was mutally beneficial, since donors and recipients were good tissue matches for each other. The operations were timed to occur at exactly the same moment, so no one could back out.
How much is a new kidney worth? With the advent of these so-called “paired exchanges” (the first was in 2001), some advocates are suggesting that kidneys should be considered commodities - that people could offer their own kidneys for sale.
A moment’s reflection will reveal some of the dangers of this idea. Think of the exploitation of the poor that might occur with schemes like this. After all, this has already happened in other countries, where rich foreigners “buy” organs - a sort of “transplant tourism” (see my blog post on this).
It is a disturbing thought that our body parts might be for sale. This seems like a bad solution to the problem of a shortage of donor organs. Such commodification of ourselves can only add to the devaluation of human beings throughout society.
walkerma wrote,
It might not be exactly equivalent but don’t we already exploit poor individuals in third wourld countries by paying them pennies on the dollar for menial labor so that we can benefit from higher profit margins and cheap prices?
Link | October 25th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
D Sullivan wrote,
[Reponse to walkerma]
Yes, good point. There have been several public scandals over the years of U.S. corporations making products in so-called “sweat shops,” where conditions are inhumane and the pay is much too low. It has taken public exposure to force some of these companies to change their practices.
So the “next step” of exploitation might be to take advantage of someone’s poverty by inducing him or her to, say, sell a kidney for money to live on. Once again, public exposure may be the only way to help prevent this.
Link | October 26th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
CedarEthics » Blog Archive » Is it Ethical to Pay for Organs? wrote,
[...] a recent post on this subject, I expressed concern over the dangers of commodifying our body organs. Are these [...]
Link | July 24th, 2008 at 2:22 pm