gary@rochester.UUCP (Gary Cottrell) (03/13/84)
See some sci-fi books by Larry Niven (e.g., "the long ARM of Gil Hamilton") for interesting views of future trends due to organ transplants (increase in capital punishment crimes for the spare parts, new crimes such as "organlegging") gary cottrell
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (03/15/84)
>> >> There is a move afoot in the congress to regulate organ donations >> >> at the federal level. One of the proposed provisions would >> >> prohibit the sale of any body parts. The supposed rationale for >> >> this is to prevent the poor from becoming "spare parts heaps" for >> >> the rich. >> >> I thought the rationale for this was to prevent rich people from >> "outbidding" poor people in their efforts to get an organ. >> >> Beth Mazur {ima,harpo,esquire}!inmet!mazur I heard some discussion of this issue not long ago on NPR. I don't think the issue is "outbidding", especially since organ transplants are already quite costly operations even aside from the cost of the organs themselves. It has more to do with the source of the organs. At the moment, a growing number of organs are bought from donors in the third world, people who may be in desperate need of cash but who are without the resources to, say, go on dialysis if their remaining kidney fails. Prohibiting the sale of organs within this country was seen as the most effective means of cutting down on unscrupulous purchases of organs abroad. --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle