Organs to be taken without consent - Telegraph

Organ donations have been the news recently. Most alarmingly, the new policy in Great Britain that allows hospitals to take organs without consent. This is wrong on more than one level, but without getting into these specifics at this time I want to propose an alternative: Organ selling.

For starters, let's talk kidneys.

Currently, sixteen people die in the United States every day while awaiting a kidney transplant. Good kidneys are not, and should not be, rare to find. Everybody is born with two good ones, and only one kidney is necessary to sustain life.So,yeah, there's all these spare parts walking around and no really good reason for sixteen deaths everyday.

The issue then, is not one of limited supply, but one of supply and demand. Generally, some healthy soul assumes room temperature, and then the medical staff comes out, like vultures circling a fresh kill, and attempts to persuade the grieving family to part with some parts:

"So sorry your child is dead. Can we have this?"

or,

"Before we pull the plug, we want something for nothin."

Morbid.

If families, or even individuals, were allowed to sell their kidneys, more kidneys would become available. Money is a great motivator. How many surviving families could be benefitted if they could get a sizable lump of cash after Daddy dies in a tragic accident,leaving his kids without the support of a father? Or, somebody struggling in poverty could offer up one of their spare kidneys to somebody with the means to save themselves while also helping out another?

Now, before you go and turn all "Two Americas" on me about how 'the rich' will benefit off 'the poor', let me inform you: our current system of donation already favors the wealthy and the famous. Celebrities routinely move to the front of the organ line. This is not a not a secret to the mildly informed. And the wealthy, but not so famous, travel to third world nations like India to receive organs on the open market.

I don't know about you, but if a family member could procure an organ for a price, I wouldn't hesitate to drain my savings and mortgage my home to save their life.

Add in the charity factor of neighbors, co-workers, or church groups, and nobody will go without.

As it stands now, I am forbidden from doing so as I do not have the means to go abroad, or a government that will allow this basic freedom.

Right here, right now, in what is bragged of as the freest of nations, everybody makes money from organ donations except for the supplier of the organs. We need to change this.

Sure, we could adopt the European-socialist-serfdom model that says you and your body are not your own, but wards of the state instead, to serve a greater good according to, and defined by, the The Powers.

Or we could solve our organ shortage in a manner that respects individual freedoms and personal sovereignty.

I totally agree with you about the wait and see approach. But I don't know of any doctors that are "vultures" waiting to claim some organs. That is unethical and highly unlikely. Such actions would probably result in a withdrawl of a medical liscence. I can't even imagine the number of malpractice suits would come out of that.

Different approach to the whole suing doctors in the UK, as in the governmet has made it virtually impossible for you to do it.

I can bore you with details about proportionality ,negligence, causation and the fact that we dont have punative damages, but trust me I used to deal with them, and if they chop off the wrong leg it could take you 10 years to get 30,000.

We already have routine DNR,s being placed on patients - against their wishes, old age pensioners dying in hospital from malnutrition because the nurses put their food just out of reach and they are too weak to get it, and nobody notices that the old dear in bed 5 hasnt eaten anything for 10 days until she dies, then an investagation is held and after 5 years they agree that 'lessons need to be learned',so as a UK resident I am fairly sceptical about the governments ability to regulate the whole affair.

Bitter ....me....???

My dad died almost 10 years ago waiting for a heart transplant. We would have paid ANY price to get one for him. UNOS had him listed at the #1 priority spot in the nation for over a week and we still lost him. The point isn't about selling organs, it's about educating people to be donors and letting family members know that. There could have been someone who was willing to be a donor, but wasn't in any capacity to tell hospital staff that and maybe their family didn't know their final wishes. So in the end two families ended up losing a loved one. It happens time and time again.

My best friend's brother and nephew were killed in a car accident just over a year ago. He brother died en route to the hospital and her nephew was on life support for a week before they finally declared him brain dead. When she called to tell me that, I asked her if the family would even consider donation (she knew of my dad) and she said no. The next day she called to tell me that his mother had agreed to donation and he ended up helping 5 people. He was 12 when he died and in the end gave hope and life to 5 others and their families. So he still lives on in some way.

And even though I was at the other end of the spectrum with my dad, the hospital staff does not act like "vultures" just hovering around hoping for death. That's ridiculous!

My message is, PLEASE consider donation, just for the sake of helping someone, not money. And if you do decide to be a donor, let your family know!

Of course every one im my family are donors, but when I brought it up with my husband after we got married, he is against it. Everyone else in my family knows to go against his wishes if something were to happen to me. Because in the end, it's what I want to happen with my body, not him.

Sorry this is long but think about it.

I am in the market for a lung. I have type B positive blood.

How much are you willing to pay?

How much are you willing to pay?

If I find that I need that lung, a big bunch of money.

Our moonbatty family are all for organ donation. Too bad - or maybe not! - that we tend to die off due to cancer, usually when we are quite old. This means that there ain't anything of value when it comes time to harvest.

And wouldn't it be worth it -- for both buyer and seller?

And wouldn't it be worth it -- for both buyer and seller?

Yup! You sure have got that right!

On the other hand, if I were to croak tomorrow my estate has on offer a truly fabulous vajajay. This bit of anatomical bizness is in mint, but not cherry, condition. It has only been used for recreational purposes. I will remind you that the blood type required is B positive should you wish to take advantage of this exciting offer. The other condition is that the current owner of the vajajay will no longer have any further use of it.

nina: How depressing!!

trish: Just the other night on House, they did a story on this very subject. Dr. House managed to harvest a heart from a woman who was not a candidate to donate a heart because she had Hep C. The man who was dying obviously wouldn't have minded a bout with Hep C if it meant he could get her heart and continue to live. It was an interesting concept.