A global auction house for organ buyers and sellers would help to eliminate the corruption and bureaucracy that has given this nascent industry a bad name. No need for executing prisoners to collect spare parts when those in need can go right to the source and pay doners good money for prime organs. Get the governments out of the mix - power to the people! An additional benefit might be the wiring of those parts of the third world that have up-to-now been overlooked because of extreme poverty and the lack of a viable export commodity. Using the World Wide Web, cheap, thin clients can be given away to the poorest of the poor. (perhaps this could be subsidised through drug company banner advertisement and incentive) These computers would then form massively parallel network. Instead of a currency based on precious metals, the fundamental exchange of this network could be medical supplies and much-needed medicines such as protease inhibitors and malaria drugs. The horsepower of this huge distributed network could be harnessed for estimating the pricing and exchange of organs and pharmaceuticals based on supply and demand-- digidj, Jun 29 2001 "'no problem' to arrange transplant" http://news.bbc.co..../health/2219837.stm [angel, Aug 29 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004] I like the idea of a global auction house for organs. In the book "The Organ Grinders" by Bill Fitzhugh, he details a near-future where organ sales are commonplace. Selling a spare kidney to someone willing to pay dearly for it seems to benefit both parties, and there could still be charity for people unable to pay premium prices. But why do you need to replace money with pharmaceuticals?-- MuddDog, Jun 29 2001 Oh, body parts. It was much more surreal when I thought you were talking about church organs, hammonds, etc.-- vincebowdren, Jun 29 2001 call me old fashioned but this just seems WRONG. Here's why: If people in poor countries can sell their vital organs what to keep people from selling of kidney's just so they can eat-- it seems sort of dangerous to me. I don't know. Someone tell me if I'm missing something..-- futurebird, Jun 30 2001 [futurebird]: You're not bothered if they starve, but if they sell their organs to eat that's "WRONG"?
(Not that organ sales are really a sustainable approach to solving the Third World's problems, but...)
[Rods Tiger]: Did you die a month ago, or what?-- egnor, Jul 01 2001 I guess it just a question of log term gain vs. short term gain. at list when you sell something through a black market you have some chance of charging an outragous price. But with a network like this one the prices will be lower maybe very low... I bet there are a lot of people in the world who sell for just $15 or so... This would makes first-world organ donations drop since the shortage would be solved and the prices wouldn't be high enough for many people in rich countries to even bother ...-- futurebird, Jul 01 2001 But if you *were* to... how much, may I ask, might something like that go for (US)?-- The Military, Jul 01 2001 Of course, you had a choice about selling your brain. If you lived in the third world you'd've had to, probably for a can of chick peas or a candy necklace.-- Monkfish, Jul 01 2001 [sidthejoker]: No problem, apparently. See link.-- angel, Aug 29 2002 The medical ethics slant on this is fairly simple: If you are going to benefit from donating an organ, then you have an incentive to lie about your medical history. Therefore, you cannot be accepted as a donor.-- lurch, Mar 07 2003 could really use the cash at the moment but it seems like quite a risk. anyone want to hire my kidney for a year? organsforhire@Burke&Hare.com-- rainbow, Jan 02 2006 OK, I just cleared out about eight accounts and postings from people who, across the years, have been trying to sell their kidneys through the Internet on the halfbakery. This is freaking me out a little bit.
HEY THERE. YES YOU. DON'T SELL YOUR ORGANS HERE. FOR STARTERS, IT'S ILLEGAL.
I know what the title bar says, but this site is a discussion forum for poorly thought-out inventions, not a classified market for organs. And if you ignore that, and instead add yet another four-liner saying how you're healthy but poor, and want to be contacted via email, I *will* nuke your account. Back to you, Bob.-- jutta, May 26 2006 Desperation and greed know no boundaries. If the former, my sympathies, if the latter...-- methinksnot, May 26 2006 Technically, couldn't you buy entire people this way? Take [8th of 7] for example. If I pay for all of their organs and choose for them to keep said organs in their body(ies), don't I technically own them? (I mean 8th, not the organs. I KNOW that I own those.)
Plus, you could save money by buying in bulk. Perhaps a few rulings should be written against this.
[jutta], do you know how many people tried to sell organs here? I seriously want to know how many people seriously wanted to illegally sell organs on this site. That kind of stuff creeps me out.-- Shadow Phoenix, Mar 06 2008 [jutta] please feel free to put them in touch with me instead.
Does anyone know how long you have to soak fava beans?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 06 2008 Not for very long. You should steam the young beans for 3 minutes, eat with a fresh fillet steak (or a liver, if you wish) and sip a nice Chianti Superiore made solely from Sangiovese grapes.
(I reccomend pure Sangiovese because of it's spicy, yet aged qualities. In it's absence, Malvasia Bianca grapes can be used. Trebbiano is unacceptable.)-- Shadow Phoenix, Mar 07 2008 There's only one country in the world without a shortage of kidneys for transplant. There's also only one country in the world with a legal market for organs. Guess what; it's the same one.-- angel, Mar 07 2008 In developing countries, there are millions of people who are uneducated/poor, they would not know of the side effects of such organ donations and the risks involved. obviously anyone explaining it to them would be biased towards donating as well, imagine a poor family in remote parts of India, the father has to work 10 hours in the fields daily to feed his family, is someone approached him and he sold his kidney thereafter, he might have money good for a few years, what after that? he can live well, yes, what about hard physical labor? I'm all for helping those in need, but paying someone who doesnt know anything about it doesnt help. Forget the uneducated, how many here at halfbakery(all highly educated i assume) know the effects of organ transplants? there's absolutely no awareness in developing countries.. it seems like a win-win situation, money for kidneys, what if the second party doesnt fully understand what he/she's getting into.
An definate improvement to this idea is to train potential doners on what will be different after organ donation, maybe a mandatory 1 day program?-- mrsarcasm, Mar 07 2008 //There's only one country in the world without a shortage of kidneys for transplant. There's also only one country in the world with a legal market for organs.// I believe you've mentioned this before. However, I'm wondering if you've really looked into Iran's transplant system and feel it would be a good one to emulate?
The Iranian system pays a small fee to the donor. It's not enough to pay for the cost of the surgery. The recipient is expected to make up the balance. The recipient is also expected to pay for testing to assure the compatibility - and very importantly, the quality - of the organ to be donated. When both sides are desperate, quality suffers. Often, the transplant will fail after a short time, since testing that could have detected problems was avoided as too expensive. The result - more medical expenses, and another transplant is required. For the donor, they are often out of work for one to two months. This can result in loss of employment. And the market is so saturated that donors don't get much for their organs. One study showed that of financially needy donors, 90% were in financial trouble again within twelve months.
Ok. Anyway. My temper is up, and I'm going to throw down the gauntlet. <lifts shirt> See? There's my Ultimate Bragging Scar. Starts about 10 cm below my sternum, and three to the right; extends 22 cm down toward my right hip. That's from a donor nephrectomy - my wife has had my right kidney since July of '01. How many of the rest of you are sitting there with good health and two functional kidneys while deploring the shortage of organs?
I do have to agree with one of [mrsarcasm]'s points - education is vital. Donation is scary, but it needn't be. My experience - as I often tell people - was less painful than having my wisdom teeth out. I'm going to challenge the lot of you - do you *know* if you're in good enough health to donate a kidney? Does your country's government permit you to donate an organ to a stranger? Does your workplace permit time away from work for the purpose of a "good Samaritan" donation? If not, why? Would you be willing to donate a kidney to someone you love? Would you be willing to donate a kidney to someone you don't know?
You needn't clutter up this thread, but do feel free to e-mail me. There are things that any of you can do - even if you're not personally able to donate, you can work on becoming so; you can get educated, and you can spread the education around.-- lurch, Mar 07 2008 random, halfbakery