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This could have fit anywhere but I picked here.
I was listening to talk radio today and a discussion of selling body parts for money was going on. The host (not Rush but someone filling in for him) stated his view that if a person was of sound mind and body and wanted to sell a kidney or lung or whatever, and could find someone willing to pay for it, then he was basically selling his "property" (i.e. his body) and that shouldn't be against the law.
I do agree with that line of reasoning, although I would put in some more requirements in than just someone deciding willy-nilly some day to sell their body/parts (prostitution can probably be roped into this as well so I worded it that way). It should be something similar to what transgendered people do, having to have a full battery of tests, physicals, and psychological evalutions to ensure that things would proceed well and be healthy and everything.
However, of course, on the radio show, plenty of people were calling in to argue that point, which I didn't really listen to except to acknowledge that a lot of folks are really against people selling their own body, however, it did raise this question in my own mind.
Men can get paid to make donations to sperm banks, and women can have their eggs harvested for other people to buy and use, and yet a minority of people have issues with that. Most consider these sorts of donations a good thing that can be done for people that couldn't do them for themselves. So why is it that this practice is considered acceptable but not selling, say, a kidney?
All right, you could make the argument "Eggs and sperm aren't vital organs, if something happens to the rest of your eggs or sperm, you won't die from being without them." And I'll accept that, that's a good argument. However, if an adult knows that they could be shooting themselves in the foot some time down the road and accept that, why should we tell him he doesn't have the right to?
And along the same lines, selling eggs and sperm could be considered WORSE than selling organs. If you sell your kidney, you're only getting rid of a part of yourself, you're the only person directly affected by that. But when you sell eggs and sperm, those eggs and sperm are going to be used to hopefully create children...so in some sense, you're actually selling parts of OTHER people rather than a part of yourself. So it seems that in some light that it's okay to sell OTHER people, but not yourself. (I'm just presenting how I see it, you might not agree...that's what the site is for, after all!)
I just find the entire issue mindboggling, to be honest, interested in some of the thoughts on it outside of my head.
I was listening to talk radio today and a discussion of selling body parts for money was going on. The host (not Rush but someone filling in for him) stated his view that if a person was of sound mind and body and wanted to sell a kidney or lung or whatever, and could find someone willing to pay for it, then he was basically selling his "property" (i.e. his body) and that shouldn't be against the law.
I do agree with that line of reasoning, although I would put in some more requirements in than just someone deciding willy-nilly some day to sell their body/parts (prostitution can probably be roped into this as well so I worded it that way). It should be something similar to what transgendered people do, having to have a full battery of tests, physicals, and psychological evalutions to ensure that things would proceed well and be healthy and everything.
However, of course, on the radio show, plenty of people were calling in to argue that point, which I didn't really listen to except to acknowledge that a lot of folks are really against people selling their own body, however, it did raise this question in my own mind.
Men can get paid to make donations to sperm banks, and women can have their eggs harvested for other people to buy and use, and yet a minority of people have issues with that. Most consider these sorts of donations a good thing that can be done for people that couldn't do them for themselves. So why is it that this practice is considered acceptable but not selling, say, a kidney?
All right, you could make the argument "Eggs and sperm aren't vital organs, if something happens to the rest of your eggs or sperm, you won't die from being without them." And I'll accept that, that's a good argument. However, if an adult knows that they could be shooting themselves in the foot some time down the road and accept that, why should we tell him he doesn't have the right to?
And along the same lines, selling eggs and sperm could be considered WORSE than selling organs. If you sell your kidney, you're only getting rid of a part of yourself, you're the only person directly affected by that. But when you sell eggs and sperm, those eggs and sperm are going to be used to hopefully create children...so in some sense, you're actually selling parts of OTHER people rather than a part of yourself. So it seems that in some light that it's okay to sell OTHER people, but not yourself. (I'm just presenting how I see it, you might not agree...that's what the site is for, after all!)
I just find the entire issue mindboggling, to be honest, interested in some of the thoughts on it outside of my head.
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