Should people be allowed to sell their body parts for transplant?
This is a serious question, so I'm only going to consider serious answers. It is said that the reason the selling of body parts for transplant is to prevent transplants from only being available to those who can afford them. But since you have to have the ability to pay for the operation itself before being considered a good candidate, what difference does it make if some transplanted organs were paid for?
If you think it should remain illegal, please give a credible explanation. If you think it should be legal, please explain. If my premise is incorrect, please let me know.
Michelle F2007-01-19T01:15:07Z
Favorite Answer
I don't think it should be legal. I also don't agree with the statement that if they can afford the transplant operation, they should be able to afford the organ itself. My reasons are 1) if the surgery is covered by insurance than the organ most likely won't be. What is to stop a person from asking for a million dollars for their kidney? I don't know any insurance company that would pay that kind of money to an individual person. And those who have no insurance often end up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt because they can't pay for the operation outright, and I don't know many hospitals that would refuse to do it because they couldn't. Or they rely on donations from the hospitals and other charitable sources 2) What is a fair price for an organ anyway. What may be fair to you may not be to the next guy. 3) It would contribute to the already astronomical price gauging that is currently present in healthcare. 4) People who can't afford an organ would die. Poor people have just as much right to live as the rich. 5) Since you can't live without the majority of the organs that you would give for a transplant, what good would come out of profiting from it? You can't spend the money if you are dead. 6) Then it would give people the right to charge money for the use of the blood that they donate and it would snowball from there. It would never end. Also keep in mind that in many situations there has to be compatibility. So what happens if you sell to a person who is either not a match or the organ is rejected by the body after surgery? Do they have the right to a refund? If people sell their organs then it would also mean that less and less organs will be available through the hospitals, thereby denying the people who truly need them. Also put yourself on the other side of the issue. Could you afford to buy a kidney or bone marrow for the asking price of 1 million dollars, or whatever the asking price may be, if you yourself needed it to live? Whatever the price is I am sure it won't be cheap.
I think you messed up in your presentation. If I read what you wanted to say properly, it is that the prevention of selling body parts is to prevent only those who can afford them from having them. Most people who can "afford" them do so from having insurance to pay for the operation. The prohibition from selling yourself is both an ethical issue, a health issue for both the recipient, and the donor, as well a compatibility issue. There is one other point, the ethics of knowing who got your body part, and "leaning' on them for more money for your sacrifice. The medical profession won't even allow a platelets donor know where their donated platelets went. A bone marrow donor may very well not ever know who got their bone marrow. That is for a very just cause, simply because the donor has the right to back out at the last moment. If they do so, then they have just effectively signed the death certificate of the recipient. So, there are many very good reasons to not allow a living donor to sell what they have for sale. Besides, are you really willing to live with just one of something that you have 2 of. What if something does go wrong, is the money made on the sale of that other part worth possibly dying for. Get yourself a good job, and wait until you are dead before offering yourself up for those who might need your body parts.
Sale of body parts is prohibited. Usually, the allowed giving of body parts is the donation made by a person when meeting an accident or after meted a death penalty.
well i have insurance and many people do, im not sure how much it would pay, but i think it wont be long before they can clone organs in a lab. however at this point in my life id rather die than have a transplant.