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Abortion, Civil Rights, Healthcare and other Social Issues Abortion, Civil Rights, Homosexuality, Education, Healthcare and other such issues

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  #16 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Porras View Post
I imagine putting organs on the open market would be damaging to the poor. The currently high cost doesn't take into effect the price of a kidney. I know I wouldn't sell mine for less than several hundred thousand.
That is a very stupid argument. You might as well ban back-breaking and physical jobs because the poor are more likely to take them.
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  #17 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Dilettante View Post
Personally, I'm gonna have to go with "no", though I think this puts me in the minority.

I remember from college people who went to sell plasma over and over again to get spending money. If they had the option of selling off an organ for thousands of dollars they'd have done it in a heart-beat and quite possibly seriously screwed up their later lives.
As has already been mentioned, the poor would be much more likely to sell off their organs in desperation. And I suspect that those with expensive substance abuse habits would be in front of the line, thus making the lower rung of society one bit more degraded and wretched.
To farther doom the poor, this would likely mean that only the rich will ever receive organ replacements since they can pay for them. Rather then just be organ doners, people could will their organs to their family upon death so they could sell them, thus perhaps paying for burial costs, and making the number of free organs floating around very, very small.
In short, I'm willing to classify selling off your organs (along with say, selling yourself into slavery) as something you're simply not allowed to do because the negative social effects are so great.
That's just silly. Why ban people from doing things to prevent them from making what you think are bad decisions? Why not ban people from buying cars without oversight from a car expert to make sure they aren't ripped off? If you are concerned about the poor, you might as well ban menial and backbreaking jobs, because the poor will usually take them.
Quote:

HOWEVER, if we did allow organ sales, I think it's essential that two policies go along with that:
1) You cannot buy organs from any foreign nation unless they have laws forbidding coercive sales and enforce those laws. Importing cheap organs from Sudan is no good.
Why not?
Quote:
2) If you opt to sell an organ, the state is not responsible for any health-related costs that result from that decision. If you're one remaining kidney has trouble when you're 60, Medicare will not pay for any drugs or treatment that would not have been necessary had you kept your original kidney.
I don't think the state or any government should be by default responsible for any health care.
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  #18 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
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Speakeasy Speakeasy is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
I think it should. After all, your body is your property, isn't it? If the government bans you from selling your organs, that is the same as saying the government owns your body in some way. What bad can come of this?
It's not the same as saying the government owns your body. You can do whatever the hell you want to do with your organs, you just can't exchange them for government regulated currency. Just because someone forbids you to sell something, doesn't mean the one forbidding it owns it. That would mean the government owns everyone's children and ebay owns my collection of soiled panties.
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  #19 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Speakeasy View Post
It's not the same as saying the government owns your body. You can do whatever the hell you want to do with your organs, you just can't exchange them for government regulated currency. Just because someone forbids you to sell something, doesn't mean the one forbidding it owns it. That would mean the government owns everyone's children and ebay owns my collection of soiled panties.
I agree with the former, but I don't understand the latter.
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  #20 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
I agree with the former, but I don't understand the latter.
As in, you can't sell your children, but that doesn't mean the government owns them. You can't sell sex, but that doesn't mean the government owns our libidos. The last one was joke, as ebay forbids people from selling soiled panties....which doesn't mean they own them.
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  #21 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Speakeasy View Post
As in, you can't sell your children, but that doesn't mean the government owns them.
That would be because the children are their own property, not because the they are the government's property.
Quote:

You can't sell sex, but that doesn't mean the government owns our libidos.
I think it means they do, since the libido is your property and you should be able to sell it.
Quote:
The last one was joke, as ebay forbids people from selling soiled panties....which doesn't mean they own them.
eBay is a private group. It doesn't forbid you from selling your soiled panties, it refuses to help sell them.
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  #22 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
That is a very stupid argument. You might as well ban back-breaking and physical jobs because the poor are more likely to take them.
Actually, my argument was the exact opposite of what you seem to think it was. I'm not saying it isn't right for poor people to sell their organs, I'm saying it isn't right to set up a market society that will never allow poor people to receive organs unless they are from family members.
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Last edited by Porras; 07-16-2007 at 01:38 PM.
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  #23 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
That would be because the children are their own property, not because the they are the government's property.
You could make an argument that children are the property of their parents..
Quote:
I think it means they do, since the libido is your property and you should be able to sell it.
I agree you should be able to sell it, but I disagree that it means it's the government's property.
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eBay is a private group. It doesn't forbid you from selling your soiled panties, it refuses to help sell them.
Yes...that's where the 'joke' part comes in.
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  #24 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
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Dilettante Dilettante is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slon View Post
That's just silly. Why ban people from doing things to prevent them from making what you think are bad decisions? Why not ban people from buying cars without oversight from a car expert to make sure they aren't ripped off? If you are concerned about the poor, you might as well ban menial and backbreaking jobs, because the poor will usually take them.
Because I don't consider people making stupid decisions about cars or people working menial labor jobs as detrimental to society as people selling off their internal organs for cash.
I think people should be free to be ignorant, gullible and stupid, but only up to a point. IMO (and apparently in the opinion of lawmakers) allowing the sell of human organs would have excessively determental effects on society, thus I have no problem with the ban.
I feel the same way about the restrictions on child labor.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slon View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dilettante View Post
HOWEVER, if we did allow organ sales, I think it's essential that two policies go along with that:
1) You cannot buy organs from any foreign nation unless they have laws forbidding coercive sales and enforce those laws. Importing cheap organs from Sudan is no good.
Why not?
I should think that would be obvious: I think we should work hard to avoid supporting anyone who coercively takes organs out of other people.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slon View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dilettante View Post
2) If you opt to sell an organ, the state is not responsible for any health-related costs that result from that decision. If you're one remaining kidney has trouble when you're 60, Medicare will not pay for any drugs or treatment that would not have been necessary had you kept your original kidney.
I don't think the state or any government should be by default responsible for any health care.
And yet they are, so that's the system we have to work with.
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  #25 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Porras View Post
Actually, my argument was the exact opposite of what you seem to think it was. I'm not saying it isn't right for poor people to sell their organs, I'm saying it isn't right to set up a market society that will never allow poor people to receive organs unless they are from family members.
Poor already can't get plenty of things. Expensive cars and homes are some of those.
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  #26 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Speakeasy View Post
You could make an argument that children are the property of their parents..
I probably could, but I won't. What is your point?
Quote:
I agree you should be able to sell it, but I disagree that it means it's the government's property.
If you can't sell something that belongs to do you, wouldn't that mean the government sort of controls it?
Quote:
Yes...that's where the 'joke' part comes in.
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  #27 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Dilettante View Post
Because I don't consider people making stupid decisions about cars or people working menial labor jobs as detrimental to society as people selling off their internal organs for cash.
But why should something that is detrimental to society be banned? I think alcohol is detrimental to society. Ban it?
Quote:

I think people should be free to be ignorant, gullible and stupid, but only up to a point. IMO (and apparently in the opinion of lawmakers) allowing the sell of human organs would have excessively determental effects on society, thus I have no problem with the ban.
I feel the same way about the restrictions on child labor.
I think this is the problem. We have a key fundamental disagreement. You place government over society. I don't.
Quote:

I should think that would be obvious: I think we should work hard to avoid supporting anyone who coercively takes organs out of other people.
But if they are from another nation, who really cares? It's not like we are pouring cash into their economy for free just to make sure they continue oppressing people.
Quote:

And yet they are, so that's the system we have to work with.
That's silly. I think all irrational aspects of government should be removed, not to cater to some irrational ones.
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  #28 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
I probably could, but I won't. What is your point?
The point was that just because you can't sell something doesn't mean that the government owns it...
Quote:
If you can't sell something that belongs to do you, wouldn't that mean the government sort of controls it?
Not really. If the government really 'controlled' it, then people wouldn't still be selling sex every day. The government doesn't like it, but they hardly control it.
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  #29 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
Slon Slon is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Speakeasy View Post
The point was that just because you can't sell something doesn't mean that the government owns it...

Not really. If the government really 'controlled' it, then people wouldn't still be selling sex every day. The government doesn't like it, but they hardly control it.
Some things cannot be sold because you don't own them in the first place, such as children. But you do own your organs, so if the government doesn't allow their sale, then it is in a sense owning it. So you are right. Just because you can't sell something, doesn't mean the government owns it. However, if you should be allowed to own it, and you can't sell it, then the government does believe it should own it.
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  #30 (permalink)  
Old 07-16-2007
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Dilettante Dilettante is offline
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Re: Should organ selling be legal?

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
But why should something that is detrimental to society be banned? I think alcohol is detrimental to society. Ban it?
Some have certainly tried, though IMO it was a mistake.
I place the level of detriment very high before I condone a government ban. Alcohol doesn't nearly reach that level. Organ selling does, IMO.

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
I think this is the problem. We have a key fundamental disagreement. You place government over society. I don't.
I think you're right about the fundamental disagreement, but wrong about the terminology.
In a democratic system, government IS society (with a few dampeners and checks on it).
I think our difference is that I don't consider absolute personal freedom to be the highest good, and (in what I consider to be extreme situations) I'm willing to impinge some degrees of personal freedom for "the greater good" or even for the good of the individual.
If I read you correctly, then you believe individual personal freedom is the highest goal, trumping everything else.

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
But if they are from another nation, who really cares? It's not like we are pouring cash into their economy for free just to make sure they continue oppressing people.
I care.
And I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that the majority of voters agree with me and would be willing to ban imports of organs from nations where they could be "farmed" or stolen from the general populace.

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Originally Posted by Slon View Post
That's silly. I think all irrational aspects of government should be removed, not to cater to some irrational ones.
Well, that's all well and good. But you should distinguish whether or not you're talking about changing one aspect of the system (i.e. just adding the ability to sell organs) or changing many or, for that matter, talking about some completely different hypothetical system.
If we're going to debate removing the ban on organ sales in this country at this time we must deal with the fact that the government does pay for a considerable amount of health care.
Whether or not that should also be changed is another debate.
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