Organ Swapping Club Faces Opposition

Fox News ^ | July 15, 2003 | Adam Housley

[Steve Eisenberg]

LOS ANGELES

[Steve Eisenberg]

More Americans die every year waiting for donor organs than die in vehicle crashes. And most of the organs which could save them are never donated, because potential donors and their families have no incentive to allow this. I am a member of the free LifeSharers organ donation organization which trades your pledge to donate internal organs in the event of your untimely passing for you (or your wife, or your children) having enhanced availability of a high quality organ should need arise.

A conservative cause? You bet. It has to do with freedom to operate outside the government's organ sharing bureaucracy. Plus, the bureaucrats hate LifeSharers because it's judgemental. We judge that a person pledged to organ donation should be given preference for getting an organ while they live -- not just because it is right, but much more because without incentives to be a donor, donation rates will continue to stagnate, and thousands will continue to die.

Feel free to pounce on any of this. I'd love to discuss it and no one will be flamed, at least by me.

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[ThinkDifferent]

More Americans die every year waiting for donor organs than die in vehicle crashes.

Socialism kills.

[lelio]

Here's my two cents on this. The opposition to LifeSharers can be split into three groups:

1. People that believe in a socialist utopia where no matter what you do in life (smoke, drink, etc) there's someone looking out for you. Placing judgements on their life choices is wrong, and they deserve a new kidney as much as the next guy.

2. People that fear this could turn into a "only give my eyes to a white guy" group. That's a legitimate concern, but from what I've read this isn't likely.

3. People that think that unless you're part of a clique you're not going to get an organ transplant. That's another legitimate concern.

However I think, like the poster, that concern #3 will be lessened as people will have more of an incentive to donate their organs if they knew it was going to go to a like minded person. The number of organs would increase, meaning that there's more organs not in the LifeSharer's program. Non socialist planning to the rescue!

[Mears]

All I know is that I don't want my organs to go to anyone that is incarcerated or to anyone that is in this country illegally.

Can these specifications be made?

Just curious!

[eastforker]

Here is a point I would like to discuss,joe needs a kidney,I have two healthy ones and mine are compatible,why can't I sell him one of mine,or if I want,auction them to the highest bidder if more than one needs it while I am still alive.Upon my death if someone wants some other organ,let them pay my family,why should doctors and other medical staff be the only ones to make money on someone else's grief?

[lelio]

why can't I sell him one of mine
I would think the cost of taking the kidney out of you while you're still alive and then plopping it in someone else would be highly cost prohibitive. Plus you have two of most organs for a reason, and its not so that you can sell one of them off: its a backup in case one fails.
I'm all for the government staying out of our lives. But donating organs from yourself while you're living crosses the line of common sense, and will attract those that are down and out of their luck. Its not like donating plasma (*) where your risk is low, this decision could haunt you for the rest of your life.

(*) sidenote: everyone that I knew in college that "donated plaz" ended up spending the beer money they made on later hospital bills.

[ProudGOP]

I've always thought we should institute a point system. If I die and donate my organs, I should be able to accumulate credit which could then be passed to my relatives. If one of them should need an organ, they would use up some of that credit.

I thought that evaluations of who get organs should be 50% need and 50% how much credit you build up from your relatives. This provides an incentive for me to help my kids and grand kids.

Of course, if they could just sell them and keep the money, that would work too.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Here is a point I would like to discuss,joe needs a kidney,I have two healthy ones and mine are compatible,why can't I sell him one of mine,or if I want,auction them to the highest bidder if more than one needs it while I am still alive.

Morally, I am not sure how I feel about this. However, I do know that the repeal of laws against organ sales is about as much of a real political possibility as victory for the Libertarian Party in the next presidential election. By contrast, the LifeSharers scheme is designed to operate consistent within present US law, which does allow you or your family to direct donation to an individual providing you are NOT paid in cash. Instead, LifeSharers pays in the non-monetary currency of giving you a hightened change of donation while you live.

[eastforker]

I was being sarcastic but I wish goverment would but out if it doesn't consern public safety.Funny thing,we were all brought into this world and we had no say so about it.Once we are here we still have no sayso if we want to leave or not.I can already feel the heat from the flames that are in no doubt going to come after that last statement.We can kill babies at will in the womb yet we can not decide our own fate when we are old and feeble and don't wish to go on. Is this what civilized is?

[Steve Eisenberg]

All I know is that I don't want my organs to go to anyone that is incarcerated or to anyone that is in this country illegally.

Can these specifications be made?

Just curious!

To be sure, you would have to check with Dave Undis, the fellow who runs LifeSharers. In my opinion, the chances of an illegal alien or prisoner joining the LifeSharers network is quite low. However, unless and until LifeSharers gets a lot more members, most of the usable organs of members who die are likely not to match with the few members who need organs, and, as a result, their organs are likely to go into the regular nationwide pool which has, I suspect, many illegals. In theory, I guess that you and your family could release your organs only if usable by a fellow member, but this would not be consistent with what I personally consider to be morally correct. To save someone's life who you would want to save you may have to risk saving someone's life whom you would not.

[Steve Eisenberg]

I can already feel the heat from the flames that are in no doubt going to come after that last statement.We can kill babies at will in the womb yet we can not decide our own fate when we are old and feeble and don't wish to go on.

No flame needed. God willing, you'll live a long life until you are old and feeble, in which case your organs will no longer be of much value to others.

One problem I see with organ sales is that the price of the organs of a healthy young person, brain dead after trauma, would be extremely high. This raises similar issues as with ridiculously high value life insurance policies -- the person is worth more dead than alive. Also, wouldn't organ sales be like malpractice? There would be a small number of enriched bereaved families while everyone else had to pay higher health insurance premiums to buy all these multi-million dollar priceless organs. Libertarians sometimes have the audacity to answer this objection by saying that organs should be for sale, but with prices controlled by government! This would be the worse of all worlds. With LifeSharers, there are no price controls because organs are fully valued in the only currency that makes sense, the chance for a longer, better quality, life.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Living kidney and partial liver donors are already fairly commonplace. A college classmate of mine recently donated one of her kidneys to a co-worker. Donors can do fine with one kidney. Healthy livers will regenerate, so a healthy person can donate a part of their liver, and their own will grow back to its normal size, while the donated portion will grow in the recipient's body.

[George W. Bush]

But the swapping idea doesn't sit well with people who currently allocate donated organs.

Because of the big money involved. But none for donors or their families.

I used to be signed up as a donor. No more. But I might consider it if I had some control over whose body my organs would be buried in.

[For some reason, I keep thinking of that Python organ donor skit...]

[Jeff Gordon]

I think LifeShares is an excellent idea. I can think of no valid argument against the idea of someone being selective about who should get their organs. Any plan that says that if I donate I must donate to the general collective is socialistic. I will be joining LifeShare.

[boris]

"The brain is my second-favorite organ."--Woody Allen