Can't we all just be Reason-able?
My six year old nephew, little libertarian that he is, has subscribed me to Reason Magazine. The first one arrived today with the teaser, "Who owns your body parts?"
Walter Williams has a great story about this, about his daughter being asked, upon his death, if she'd like to donate his kidneys:
"WHAT!? Are you crazy? My daddy came into this world with the kidneys God gave him and damn sure he's going to go out that way, too."
"We'll give you $5,000 for them."
"Would you like his eyes, too?"
Or, if that doesn't tickle you, Drudge is running this teaser, "Chinese Army harvesting body parts."
posted by ColumbusGuy @ 3:52 PM
1 Comments:
Back in the 1960's and 1970's, science fiction writer Larry Niven wrote a number of stories based on the idea that someone's lifespan could be significantly extended if he had an ample supply of transplants.
So the good voters of the USA resinstated the death penalty for all sorts of things, and condemned criminals were carefully dissected for their parts. Not just life-saving parts like kidneys: a good pair of eyes from a convicted 25-year-old would allow a decrepit octogenarian to never need glasses again.
But in these stories, the death penalty did turn out to be a deterrent, and the "organ banks" couldn't get enough supplies to keep the elderly healthy. So the next step was for private criminal gangs to spring up: they would kidnap someone off the street, and use their parts for whoever could pay. And elderly rich people will pay a lot for ten more years of life.
Me, I don't like it. But that don't mean it won't happen.
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