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Self-Driving Cars Will Make Organ Shortages Even Worse
Slate ^ | December 30, 2016 | Ian Adams and Anne Hobson

Posted on 12/30/2016 11:39:26 AM PST by Zakeet

Much has been said about the ways we expect our oncoming fleet of driverless cars to change the way we live—remaking us all into passengers, rewiring our economy, retooling our views of ownership, and reshaping our cities and roads.

They will also change the way we die. As technology takes the wheel, road deaths due to driver error will begin to diminish. It's a transformative advancement, but one that comes with consequences in an unexpected place: organ donation.

[Snip]

It's not difficult to do the math on how driverless cars could change the equation. An estimated 94 percent of motor-vehicle accidents involve some kind of a driver error. As the number of vehicles with human operators falls, so too will the preventable fatalities. In June, Christopher A. Hart, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said, "Driverless cars could save many if not most of the 32,000 lives that are lost every year on our streets and highways." Even if self-driving cars only realize a fraction of their projected safety benefits, a decline in the number of available organs could begin as soon as the first wave of autonomous and semiautonomous vehicles hits the road—threatening to compound our nation’s already serious shortages.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: automobiles; healthcare; organtransplants
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Those poor scared libtards ... you conservatives repeal Obamacare ... stop harvesting baby parts from Planned Parenthood ... adopt self-driving cars ... and you get a new healthcare crisis!

1 posted on 12/30/2016 11:39:26 AM PST by Zakeet
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To: Zakeet

Maybe they can start harvesting organs from prisoners serving Life terms?


2 posted on 12/30/2016 11:41:34 AM PST by Cowboy Bob
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To: Zakeet

Just how incredibly stupid is this line of thinking? Let’s justify highway deaths for what, organ harvesting? What a bunch of sickos!


3 posted on 12/30/2016 11:42:16 AM PST by mazda77
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To: Zakeet

So, according to these so-called “liberals”, fewer people dying due to self-driving cars is a bad thing, because there will necessarily be fewer organ donations? These are some sick people!


4 posted on 12/30/2016 11:42:37 AM PST by ConjunctionJunction
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To: Zakeet

So what this author is saying is that deaths from traffic accidents is a good thing? Then why do they demand that everyone wear seatbelts?


5 posted on 12/30/2016 11:44:06 AM PST by Rusty0604
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To: Zakeet

OHHHHH! think of the undertakers! they’ll go broke! the EMT people! towing services! hospital ER’s will shut down! doom! gloom!

Leave it to liberals to turn good into bad.


6 posted on 12/30/2016 11:44:08 AM PST by I want the USA back (Lying Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: Zakeet
while there’s certainly a place for organ donation markets in the United States, implementation will be understandably slow. There are, however, small steps that can get us closer to a just system. For one, the country could consider introducing a “presumed consent” rule.

Instead of paying people for their organs, let's steal them. Typical liberals. I advocate a “presumed consent” rule for punching liberals in the face.

7 posted on 12/30/2016 11:44:51 AM PST by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: Zakeet

Maybe they could deal with that harvested-organ shortage by programming the self-driving cars to occasionally run down pedestrians.


8 posted on 12/30/2016 11:45:29 AM PST by Wissa (Few men desire liberty. Most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: ConjunctionJunction

Right. Using this same line of thinking, we should encourage ... no, MANDATE ... cigarette smoking and heavy drinking to save Social Security and Medicare.


9 posted on 12/30/2016 11:45:29 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Yo, bartender -- Jobu needs a refill!")
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To: Zakeet

Larry Niven was very prophetic on this subject.


10 posted on 12/30/2016 11:47:00 AM PST by Seruzawa (All those memories will be lost, like tears in rain.)
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To: I want the USA back

OHHHHH! think of the undertakers! they’ll go broke! the EMT people! towing services! hospital ER’s will shut down! doom! gloom!


Many still mourn the buggy whip manufacturers and the Rickshaw operators...


11 posted on 12/30/2016 11:47:18 AM PST by marktwain
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To: Zakeet

I can’t possibly see how self driving cars could work without specialized roads, there are just way way too many things that can go wrong.


12 posted on 12/30/2016 11:47:24 AM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hillary Clinton IS a felon)
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To: Zakeet

Let’s continue with this logic.

Let’s do away with... Speed limits and safety belts.


13 posted on 12/30/2016 11:47:31 AM PST by Vic S
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To: Zakeet

Duhhhhhhh... hey stoopid libtards... it will also make THE NEED FOR organs less.


14 posted on 12/30/2016 11:48:34 AM PST by Mr. K ( Trump kicked her ass 2-to-1 if you remove all the voter fraud.)
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To: Zakeet

First of all, if this were true, the obvious solution would be to promote the idea of donating, so the pool of potential donors would be larger.

Second of all, and I can’t stress this enough, we won’t have fully autonomous driving cars for at least 50 years.


15 posted on 12/30/2016 11:49:26 AM PST by lacrew
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To: Zakeet
Self-Driving Cars Will Make Organ Shortages Even Worse

This raises a question:

Has anyone checked on what the elites are doing with the dead coming out of Chicago every weekend?

16 posted on 12/30/2016 11:49:26 AM PST by donna ('God's standards, like it or not, are the basis for the laws that led to western civilization.)
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To: Zakeet

I believe a large part of the “accident donor pool” comes from motorcyclists, especially in Spring thru Autumn. Ain’t no self-driving bikes, as far as I know.
Personally, I wouldn’t get in anything that “drives itself”.


17 posted on 12/30/2016 11:50:22 AM PST by LouieFisk
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To: Zakeet

Require everyone to drive or ride on a motorcycle helmetless and organ shortage problem solved. Wife’s son is a physician, he calls motorcycles donormobiles.


18 posted on 12/30/2016 11:50:56 AM PST by TruthWillWin (The problem with socialists is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
All this self-driving software will be linked via the internet of things. When one car learns how to maneuver a pot hole, the universe of self-driving cars learns a few seconds later.

This kind of connected thinking will outstrip human driving in a few weeks.

That said, I am not a fan, but standing in the path of on-coming technology is like trying to stop the tide.

It's coming whether we like it or not.

19 posted on 12/30/2016 11:52:02 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: Zakeet

What sad and wretched beasts leftists are.


20 posted on 12/30/2016 11:52:15 AM PST by Psalm 144 (Deplorable and loving it.)
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