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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think I should be able to sell body parts if desperate

56 replies

SkinnedAlive · 28/12/2011 17:35

Some body parts such as eggs, sperm, blood and plasma can be sold. Other more valuable parts such as liver and kidney cannot. Why one rule for one part and one rule for another? There will always be people who desperately need a transplant but cannot get one. There will always be others who desperately need money and cannot get it. Why should free trade be suspended? As someone desperate for money to fund my education, I would happily sell a kidney (medical student so do know the pros and cons).

Discuss

OP posts:

Garliccheesechips · 28/12/2011 18:25

Do you think you could get Tesco Finest Organs and Tesco Value Organs.

Original poster

SkinnedAlive · 28/12/2011 18:27

But what is immoral for the wealthy - is that the same morality for the poor? I see the homeless that live in the park beside my home. Decent, kind people - not alcoholics or drug addicts. Lost their jobs. No benefits here. No family so no-where to go. If they had the chance, to educate themselves and work again, instead of having no future or hope. What would be they do? Some of them would say no, But some, would say yes. Why if there is a demand, should the people in desperate situations without a roof over their head, starving, be prevented from selling an organ so people with food in their mouth and a warm home say it is immoral?

Obviously this is hypothetical, but when a friend suggested it to me as a joke - it did make me think.

OP posts:

MyOhMyOh · 28/12/2011 18:28

Asda HeartPrice

SauvignonBlanche · 28/12/2011 18:30

Of course you would, if organ transplantation was open to the free market, there would clearly be differing prices depending on the quality of the organ.

SauvignonBlanche · 28/12/2011 18:33

Morality makes no concession for income, it is immoral for the poor to be in a position to sell and immoral for the rich to be in a position to buy, IMO.

msbaublestwinkle · 28/12/2011 18:35

DP quite likes the idea of donations for benefits, but points out that if you lost your job enough times you would become eligible for DLA.

LydiaWickham · 28/12/2011 18:37

Well, I didn't think you could sell sperm, eggs and blood in the UK, you can just be paid 'expenses' (really not very much). What you can do, is donate eggs for free fetililty treatment. (So worth thousands in reality, but only if you need the treatment)

In the UK, there are benefits, there is a safety net if people can access it. I refuse to accept the people who end up sleeping rough in a park have the wherewithall to not only access information about all the pros and cons, weigh up the risks, then have the abilty to keep up good aftercare.

As for students, in the UK the system to pay for studies are loans. You might leave uni with massive debts, but you will have your degree, it's up to you to work out if in the long run it would be worth it for you. You might be of the opinion you were better off with just one kidney and lower debts, but life throws crap at you, you might regret that decision in the future when you need that second kidney...

LydiaWickham · 28/12/2011 18:42

oh, and when it comes to 'weighing up risks' as a medical student, you must be in the top 10% for intelliegence nationally. You should accept this means the vast majority of the people in the country (including me) are far thicker than you and will find assessing risks to medical proceedures far harder to do.

The law isn't there to protect people like you.

Bluestocking · 28/12/2011 18:56

OP, on the subject of funding your education, presumably you've asked your university about the Access to Learning Fund? Sorry if this is stating the totally obvious but I have been surprised by the number of students who don't know about ALF.

Original poster

SkinnedAlive · 28/12/2011 18:58

Personally, I am not in the UK. There is not housing and benefits where I live if you lose your job. Some very limited free healthcare for the very basics. Not everyone in the world has a safety net sadly. In the summer when it is hot I see men emaciated like concentration camp survivors. Everyone does what they can. All waste food is put on top of rubbish bins for the poor to collect.

My problem is totally my own fault. I did a degree I hated to please my family. Spent most of my life working in a job that gave me clinical depression trying to save and go back to uni to do something I love. So for me, if i had to sell a kidney to have a fulfilled life it is my risk and totally my fault if it went wrong - no-one to blame but myself. It should never be the case where poverty means you have no choice - but that is reality in some places. However, I can see a nightmare scenario where the poor chavvy parents had kids to use for transplants - to fund their chavvy lifestyle. Given the very, very poor and desperate are a minority, perhaps it is right that the comfortable should dictate morality. After all when desperate, cold, wet and hungry it is hard to be logical and make an informed choice.

OP posts:

Serenitysutton · 28/12/2011 19:01

Agree with (and pmsl at) yellow rain coat. If I were to sell my kidney it would have to be serious cash- £250k say. How can that compete with £500 for a ipad2??

thanksamillion · 28/12/2011 19:24

Some people in a village near to me (not in the UK) have apparently done this. But the money wasn't much, was quickly used up and they now have ongoing health problems linked at least in part to the 'donation'.

yellowraincoat · 28/12/2011 19:29

Maybe you should have told us you were not in the UK - the situation is obviously a lot easier for us here because we have a safety net.

Still think it's a horrible idea though, it would definitely be exploited.

ginmakesitallok · 28/12/2011 19:31

well given today's global market the very very poor aren't actually in the minority.....

If you are living in a country with little health service for poor people you probably shouldn't be selling your healthy organs...

AlpinePony · 28/12/2011 19:44

Oh the arrogance of the wealthy that they can put such a high price on their organ. For many in the world 500 is as pie in the sky as 250,000! :/

ElfenorRathbone · 28/12/2011 23:00

It is not arrogance to have a healthy respect for your own humanity.

It just disgusts me to hear people talking about this as if it is in any way reasonable. It is appalling that people have become so apolitical or reactionary, that they prefer to focus on drastic, horrific individual solutions to financial problems instead of on how to change society so that no human being ever thinks it might be a reasonable solution to sell off bits of themselves and pur their lives and/ or health at risk.

hiddenhome · 28/12/2011 23:18

I think if you're fed up and have had enough and would like to raise some money for your family, you could auction off your body parts, then go and be humanely put to sleep somewhere and the money raised goes to improving life for your family, or paying off debts or whatever

yellowraincoat · 28/12/2011 23:29

It's hardly arrogance, alpine, so much as it is comparative value of currency. £500 doesn't buy you a hell of a lot in the UK.

Nevertooearlyforcake · 28/12/2011 23:30

Absolutely no fucking way - and my dad needed a transplant and hated having to dialyse. Refused to consider taking a kidney from my brother or I though.

It would turn into a hideous exploitative cesspit. However, if you refuse to donate am not sure if you should be allowed to accept either (though I admit I haven't thought this one through).

And your health might be ok but what would you do if your DC needed a transplant one day and you couldn't donate as you'd already flogged yours.

Marvellous - strip away the social security safety net and the rich can have lower taxes with the poor so desperate they'll sell their organs to them, trebles all round!!

AlpinePony · 29/12/2011 06:53

It is arrogant, just because it won't go far in the west doesn't make it a lot of money to others. It's the same arrogance which says "oh I'd never go on the game" or "don't go to a loan shark, the interest rates are hideous".

It's easy to be pious when it's not your back against the wall. :(

yellowraincoat · 29/12/2011 07:03

I don't think anyone's saying that if they were in an absolutely desperate situation they wouldn't do it. They're saying it's immoral to make it legal.

IteotYEARawki · 29/12/2011 09:17

If you seriously can't see the inherent ethical and moral issues with selling body parts for financial gain, then I would wonder exactly what sort of doctor you are going to make.

I cannot believe any medical student would even begin such a discussion. Being a doctor is more than a knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and pathology. It involves some difficult ethical choices and I would worry that you are incapable of those sorts of decisions if this original post of yours is anything other than a bored windup from someone looking for a way out of studying.

And even if it's that, I wonder if medicine is the right course for you.

warzonemummy · 29/12/2011 09:33

I would like to sell around 5 kilos of my weight. Anyone interested.

Iscreamtea · 29/12/2011 09:39

Because people who don't really understand what they are doing and the sacrifice they are making will be persuaded to do it for money.

AlpinePony · 29/12/2011 09:41

(yellow Am not stalking you, just happened to see a post of yours on an expat thread re: "pound an hour maids" - so I think you and I are probably very much on the same page wrt "perception of wealth"!)

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