A Not So Smart Organ Market

Reading through Life Choices: A Hastings Center Introduction to Bioethics, I came across a mention of patients being compensated for donating organs or other body tissue; an organ market if you like. Part of the reasoning behind this seemed to be companies were making money off of removed tissue from patients. These patients were then filing lawsuits claiming that part of the profit should go to them, and if they were compensated beforehand this could be avoided. Now in a society were people would do just about anything for a little bit of money, a person being able to sell their own tissue is not such a stellar idea.

As soon as organs begin to be bought, people will be lining up at the clinics. “Sure, take my left kidney. Heck, take both; I’ll take an HD TV over my health any day.” Alright, so it probably wouldn’t be that severe, but if someone is in financial trouble, there is always a chance of them resorting to selling their bodies. Let us not forget, selling your body for profit is also a crime in this country in the form of prostitution.

There’s also the idea that once the tissue is removed from one’s body that it is no longer of use to that person, unless they’re thinking about mounting a removed appendix on their wall. Paying for this tissue would be like paying for one’s garbage that was being used to research new garbage renewal methods. Although if they are, sign me up, I need to pay off my tuition.