An idea with heart…and lungs, and kidneys…

Lifesharers is a private organization where members agree to donate their organs when they die and where other members get first priority on receiving the donations.

What a brilliant idea. An excellent way to harness self-interest for the greater good.

Of course, cialis usa view there has never been an idea so good that some idiot didn’t criticize it.

Mark Repenshek, a health care ethicist at Columbia St. Mary’s Health System, said:

” Should donated organs be a public resource or something each of us controls as if it were private property?”

Wow, people like this scare me.

Of course, organs are private property. (Hell, we even treat a whole human being like private property, if it happens to be inside a woman.)

Organs might not be something we want to let people sell (just like we keep people from selling their bodies for sex), but by no stretch of the imagination are organs a “public resource.”

Thinking like that leads to laws where everyone’s body is automatically harvested for their organs when they die. (Or when they commit a crime ‚Äì a world Larry Niven saw coming a long time ago.)

Lifesharers is a terrific idea.

It might even get me to donate. (Though, I must admit, the whole idea of donating an organ (or receiving one, for that matter) just creeps me out.)

1 comment March 4th, 2006


About

Being in a wheelchair gives you a unique perspective on the world. This blog features many of my views on politics, art, science, and entertainment. My name is Elliot Stearns. More...

The Abortionist

Recent Comments

Categories

Meta