Sell your kidney for $47k...
 

The doctor that did my Sister's kidney transplant 11 years ago has proposed that the government pays up to $47,000 for kidney donation to help with the chronic shortage of donors.

My family went through the screening procedure to see who could donate to my Sister. My eldest Brother was a match, but he couldnt donate due to the need for 3 months off work and with home loans etc...he couldnt do it.

My Mother was a match and went through the donation process....and the after effects have been horrific for both my Sister and my Mother.

I can see the monetary benefits would be great, but I dont know how the donors motivation could be monitored.

Obviously, the proposal was rejected....but its been weighing on my mind for the past two days.

Why not apply this same thing to people who choose to donate their organs when they pass away? I could see some people who wouldn't choose to be donors, but might if it meant $100k would be given to their kids upon death.

Cheaper than life insurance.
But would the 47k even cover the surgery?

I'll hold on to mine. I spent my early twenties in an alcoholic haze, I better have two, just to be sure.

I've been watching this on the news too and I've been thinking about it a lot.

I know I'd give up a kidney in a heartbeat for someone in my family or one of my friends if it were necessary, so the idea of actually doing it doesn't bother me. With that in mind, I really think that if you were able to get paid for doing it, I'd probably consider it anyway. It'd go a long way towards paying off the mortgage, and I might save someone's life as well.

The only thing I think about is if this would then cause some kind of ongoing vicious cylce where you're left with one kidney that has to work harder thus meaning you might need a kidney donation in the future yourself. I don't really understand all the physiology of it so can't really make an informed decision, but on the face of it, I don't really have any moral objections to it. Even for those people who give up a kidney to buy drugs etc. They'll get the money somehow if they're that desperate. I'd rather not be involved in a bank robbery.

Ali, a person can function just fine with one kidney.

My Sister had been functioning on part of an diseased one for a good 15 years (they gave her 8 years when diagnosed and she didnt even get to dialysis stage before the transplant was done).

My Mums problems are more to do with the scars that the surgery left, than the loss of a kidney.

This is why it was suggested that healthy people be able to donate a kidney...its something that we can do without.

I'm fine with the principle, but I'm not sure about the cash amount. I worry that it will persuade people who have not fully researched and understood the potential health issues (including scarring and future kidney failure) to do it out of need for a quick cash fix. I also don't think 47K is enough if you must do it lump-sum-wise. true, a bigger amount might make more people take the decision to donate while uninformed, but it might also make some say "whoa, that's a huge amount, there must be some risks, I'll find out what they are before I agree.

I think it would be better if there could be an extended term benefit ...like free private healthcare for life in countries where such a thing is vastly superior to the free public health care. Of course this is a pipe dream because few governments would agree to any benefit without a fixed determinable cost, but maybe if we could meet half way?

There was a sci-fi story about a prison where, instead or prison labor, prisoners would get benefits by donating organs. The author described a number of 'volunteers' missing eyes, kidneys, etc.

People are already preyed on for their paychecks and possessions. If we turn every human being into a walking warehouse of marketable organs, I can see a whole industry opening up. Imagine credit card contracts where the company can foreclose on a kidney if the borrower defaults. Losing an arm and a leg could become literal.

Several of Larry Niven's books involved the market for transplant organs in the future. More and more crimes were assigned the death penalty, cryogenic freezers were raided for parts, and a black market for murders fueled "organleggers".

Niven recently made the news suggesting (hopefully tongue in cheek, but probably not) that rumors in Spanish be started that hospitals were stealing illegal immigrants' organs, to discourage them from going.

If you do sell your kidney for $47k thousand, don't forget to tip the Mug.

Wouldn't it be better just to take the organs from hobos?

;)

Why has no one else flashed back to the liver transplant scene in The Meaning of Life?

Nah, I like having my windshield washed for a quarter. I say we just raid a third world country as needed.

Could be an alternate to the death penalty. Just don't tell the recipients it's a criminal organ....

I can see the headlines now:

Man Sues Mercy Medical After Learning He Got a Lawless Liver

or:

Woman In Shock After Discovering Her Kidney Was Extracted From a Kidnapper.

or:

Pedophile's Pancreas Placed Precariously in Practicing Priest. (Well, that one might not be so far-fetched.)