http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/feature_030308.html
The article shown above takes a slightly biased, Westerner point of view on the idea of a black market for human organs, but besides its take that the buying and selling of kidneys is, “a kind of global social tragedy” it does manage to show a little bit of both sides of the argument. On the one hand, there is the sad reality that there are multitudes of people living in Eastern countries that are living with abject poverty and malnutrition. These people are in circumstances that the average Western Canadian cannot relate to, and so cannot rightly condemn for their desperate actions. On the other hand, there is the Canadian of varying age, stuck on dialysis with no family to donate a desperately needed organ. They are faced with the knowledge that the waiting list for a kidney will take years, and that it is quite possible that in that extended time, their health will deteriorate enough that they will no longer be eligible for the transplant. And so if, in that state of mind, they do pay a man or woman from a foreign land for their freely given organ (at the same time lifting that family out of the poverty that they had so desperately wanted out of) can their actions really be condemned? It is not as if the foreign family signed up for the donor list without heavy consideration. They knew the risk the operation could have on them, and the fact that they signed up anyways shows how much they have to gain from taking part in the trade. And so in this situation, both sides are happy – on both, life is gained. Much of the problem with this black market stems from an idea that these trades create a two-sided world. On one side, there are those who are rich and buy organs off of desperate foreign individuals, and on the other side there are those who are being taken advantage of because of their desperation. That is the exact reason why this matter is so controversial. Human morals vs. Human desperation.
theskywillfall 