This kidney harvesting scheme is nothing like what those slaves went through. It is a way to encourage fairly-well-off middle-class people to donate their kidneys.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This kidney harvesting scheme is nothing like what those slaves went through.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/11/27/israel-stealing-organs-from-bodies-in-gaza-alleges-human-right-group

The existing organ harvesting practices are nothing short of absolute barbarity. I have little reason to believe a future profit-motivated industrial scale effort to remove organs from the most vulnerable and desperate people will be any less grotesque.

It is a way to encourage fairly-well-off middle-class people to donate their kidneys.

If we can't even do blood donation ethically, how the hell are we going to handle organ donations? Fairly well-off middle-class people aren't going to donate anything if they can purchase (or get their insurance company to purchase on their behalf) organs on a secondary market.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Just because some people have harvested organs in inhumane ways does not mean there is no ethical way to encourage people to donate kidneys. I could probably point to barbaric instances of praxis for any philosophy. Same thing with "if we can't even do blood donation ethically."

Fairly well-off middle-class people aren’t going to donate anything if they can purchase [...] organs on a secondary market Why would somebody who wants to purchase a kidney want to donate a kidney in the first place? I think you may be confused about this whole scenario.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Just because some people have harvested organs in inhumane ways does not mean there is no ethical way to encourage people to donate kidneys.

Listen, I'm not saying the fox who guarded the hen house didn't eat a few hens. I'm saying that this new fox (who looks shockingly similar to the old fox) can be trained to guard the hen house under a strict and reliable ethics code.

I could probably point to barbaric instances of praxis for any philosophy.

Damn. Almost like the entire privatized health care system is plagued with moral hazard. But since there's nothing to be done, might as well turn a blind eye to yet another form of atrocity.

Why would somebody who wants to purchase a kidney want to donate a kidney in the first place?

It's almost as though the end goal of a legal kidney market isn't to facilitate simple familial donations at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm saying that this new fox can be trained to guard the hen house under a strict and reliable ethics code.

Yes that's exactly what I'm saying.

It’s almost as though the end goal of a legal kidney market isn’t to facilitate simple familial donations at all.

Exactly! I want to see everyone who needs a kidney get one, and those who don't want to give up their kidney not be coerced into it. There is an extremely large space of people who are (a) not in poverty and (b) never seriously considered donating their kidney, and this is a great way to tap into that pool.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I want to see everyone who needs a kidney get one

Then reducing kidney failure is a critical first step. Improving the quality and accessibility of dialysis and comparable treatments would be a big second. Developing prosthetics would be up there, too. And figuring out how to economically incentivize carving organs out of desperate people would be way down the line.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm not denying that there are many ways to help with the problem. I reject the notion that "desperate" people will choose to sell their kidneys. The proposed system has several key components that prevents this from happening -- in particular, tax credits are of little use to someone struggling to get by.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

I reject the notion that "desperate" people will choose to sell their kidneys.

As evidenced above, they could just as easily have them stolen.