Selling Human Organs

Summary

The video script explores the ethical implications of selling human organs, addressing the organ shortage and proposing solutions like intra-country sales and public agency regulation. It debates deontological arguments for body autonomy and the right to make decisions about one's own body, including the sale of organs. The script also raises concerns about exploitation of the poor and the potential decrease in voluntary donations. The discussion concludes with a consequentialist argument, questioning whether selling organs would truly increase their availability or merely exacerbate existing inequalities.

Takeaways

• 📊 There is a significant shortage of organs, particularly kidneys and livers, which some argue could be alleviated by allowing the sale of organs.
• 💼 The proposal to sell organs includes schemes such as pre-death contracts, paying relatives for deceased's organs, and individuals selling their own organs for money.
• 🏛️ Serious proposals suggest that organ sales should be restricted within individual countries to prevent exploitation of poorer countries by richer ones.
• 🏦 It is suggested that all organ sales should be regulated by a public agency to ensure fair transactions and prevent direct monetary exchanges between individuals.
• 💰 The prices for organs should be set generously to ensure that donors are adequately compensated for their contribution.
• 🧑‍⚕️ Deontological arguments support the sale of organs, emphasizing the individual's right to make decisions about their own body, even if those decisions are harmful.
• 🏭 The script compares organ selling to engaging in risky occupations for pay, suggesting that if we allow the latter, it's inconsistent not to allow the former.
• 🤔 The potential problem with organ sales is that it would primarily involve those in poverty, raising ethical concerns about exploiting the poor for the benefit of the rich.
• 💡 The speaker proposes an alternative to organ sales: an opt-out donation system with tax incentives, which could encourage more organ donations without exploiting the poor.
• 🤝 The discussion raises consequentialist arguments, suggesting that allowing organ sales could increase the number of available organs, save lives, and reduce suffering.
• 🚫 There are counterarguments that a paid organ system could increase fears of premature organ donation and potentially reduce the number of freely donated organs.

Q & A

What is the main issue discussed in the script?

The main issue discussed in the script is the ethical and practical considerations of selling human organs, particularly in the context of organ shortages and the potential for exploitation of the poor.

Why is there a shortage of organs like kidneys and livers?

The shortage of organs like kidneys and livers is due to a higher demand for these organs for transplantation compared to the supply available, which is often limited by the number of donors.

What are some of the schemes proposed for organ donation as mentioned in the script?

The script mentions schemes such as paying individuals while they are alive for organs they would have after their death, paying relatives for the rights to organs of recently deceased loved ones, and paying individuals who need money to sell a kidney or part of a liver.

Why are there restrictions suggested for the sale of organs within a country?

Restrictions are suggested to prevent rich countries from exploiting poor countries as 'organ farms' due to the potential for significant monetary gain from the exchange rate differences.

What is a deontological argument mentioned in the script for the sale of human organs?

A deontological argument mentioned is that individuals have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, including the decision to sell their organs, as long as it does not substantially affect others.

How does the script compare the risks of organ donation to other risky occupations?

The script compares the risks of organ donation to other risky occupations like coal mining, deep sea diving, firefighting, and military service, suggesting that since people are allowed to engage in these dangerous jobs for compensation, it is inconsistent not to allow organ sales.

What is the consequentialist argument for the sale of human organs presented in the script?

The consequentialist argument presented is that allowing the sale of organs would alleviate the shortage of organs available for transplant, save more lives, increase happiness, and reduce suffering.

What is the speaker's personal stance on the sale of human organs, as mentioned in the script?

The speaker is not in favor of selling organs, arguing that it would primarily exploit the poor and suggesting instead an opt-out donation system with tax incentives to encourage donations without exploitation.

How does the script address the potential exploitation of the poor in the context of organ sales?

The script suggests that allowing the sale of organs would likely lead to the exploitation of the poor, as it would be those in need of money who would be more likely to sell their organs, and this is seen as an unjust practice.

What alternative solutions are proposed in the script to address the organ shortage without selling organs?

The script proposes an opt-out donation system and tax incentives for organ donation as alternative solutions to address the organ shortage without resorting to the sale of organs.

Outlines

00:00

💼 The Ethics of Selling Human Organs

The paragraph discusses the concept of selling human organs to address the shortage of organs like kidneys and livers. It proposes that allowing sales could benefit all parties involved, including donors, medical professionals, and recipients. The speaker outlines various schemes for organ sales, such as posthumous donations with legal contracts or paying relatives for the rights to organs. The paragraph also introduces the idea of limiting sales to within individual countries to prevent exploitation and suggests regulation through public agencies with generous pricing for donors. The argument for organ sales is based on the deontological perspective that individuals have the right to make decisions about their bodies, even if those decisions are harmful, and compares organ sales to risky occupations that are legally permissible for compensation.

05:02

🏛️ The Exploitation and Justice in Organ Sales

This paragraph delves into the ethical implications of organ sales, particularly the potential for exploitation of the poor. The speaker argues that allowing organ sales could perpetuate and exacerbate poverty by incentivizing the poor to sell their organs out of desperation. It contrasts this with the idea that wealthy individuals are unlikely to sell their organs for money. The paragraph also raises the question of whether the current economic system, which allows for such disparities, can justify organ sales. The speaker suggests that the problem with organ sales is not unique to this practice but is also present in other high-risk jobs, leading to a broader discussion about social justice and the distribution of risk and reward in society.

10:05

🔍 Consequentialist Arguments and Policy Proposals

The final paragraph presented discusses a consequentialist argument for organ sales, which posits that allowing such transactions would alleviate the severe shortage of organs available for transplants, save lives, and reduce suffering. It acknowledges the minimal risk to donors and suggests that the benefits could outweigh the potential drawbacks. However, the speaker also presents counterarguments that suggest a paid organ system might increase fears of premature organ donation and decrease the number of voluntary donations. The paragraph concludes with a policy proposal to switch to an opt-out organ donation system with tax incentives to encourage participation without exploiting the poor, thus addressing both the ethical concerns and the practical goal of increasing the organ donor pool.

Keywords

💡Organ Shortage

Organ shortage refers to the insufficient supply of organs available for transplantation relative to the number of patients in need. In the video, the shortage is particularly mentioned for kidneys and livers. The concept is central to the discussion on whether selling organs should be permitted as a potential solution to alleviate this shortage.

💡Deontological Arguments

Deontological arguments are ethical positions that certain actions are right or wrong in themselves, regardless of their consequences. The video discusses these in the context of organ sales, suggesting that individuals have a right to make decisions about their bodies, including selling organs, which is a deontological perspective emphasizing duty and rights over outcomes.

💡Consequentialism

Consequentialism is an ethical theory that the morality of an action is determined by its outcome or consequence. The video contrasts deontological arguments with consequentialist ones, which focus on the potential benefits of organ sales, such as reducing suffering and saving lives, rather than the inherent rights of individuals to sell their organs.

💡Exploitation

Exploitation in the video refers to the concern that allowing organ sales could lead to the poor being taken advantage of by the rich, as they might be more likely to sell their organs due to financial need. The term is used to critique the potential injustice of a system where economic disparities drive individuals to sell their organs.

💡Risky Occupations

Risky occupations are jobs that involve a higher level of danger or risk to one's health or life. The video compares the potential risks of organ sales to those of jobs like coal mining, deep-sea diving, and firefighting, which are allowed despite their dangers, to argue for consistency in permitting individuals to engage in risky activities for compensation.

💡Public Agency Regulation

Public agency regulation mentioned in the video refers to the proposal that all organ sales should be managed through a public agency to ensure fairness and prevent direct monetary exchanges between individuals. This concept is part of a broader discussion on how to ethically and safely implement a system for organ sales.

💡Generous Compensation

Generous compensation is the idea that if organ sales are allowed, the prices paid to donors should be high to ensure that they are fairly rewarded for their sacrifice. The video discusses this as part of ethical proposals to prevent exploitation and to respect the value of the donors' contributions.

💡Opt-out Donation System

An opt-out donation system is a system where individuals are presumed to consent to organ donation unless they explicitly opt out. The video suggests this as an alternative to organ sales, proposing that it might increase the number of available organs without the ethical concerns associated with selling organs.

💡Tax Incentives

Tax incentives are financial benefits provided by the government to encourage certain behaviors, such as organ donation. The video suggests tax incentives as a non-exploitative way to encourage organ donation, particularly among the middle and upper classes who benefit more from such incentives.

💡Ethical Theories

Ethical theories are frameworks for understanding and evaluating moral principles and actions. The video discusses how different ethical theories, such as consequentialism and deontology, can be applied to the debate over organ sales, highlighting the complexity of ethical decision-making in this context.

💡Injustice

Injustice in the video is used to describe the unfairness or wrongness of a situation, particularly in reference to economic disparities that might lead to organ sales exploiting the poor. The term is central to the ethical critique of organ sales as a potential practice.

Highlights

Discussion on the potential of selling human organs to alleviate shortages.

Proposals to limit organ sales to within individual countries to prevent exploitation.

Suggestion that all organ sales should be regulated through a public agency.

Argument that organ donors should be compensated at generous levels.

Deontological arguments supporting the right to make decisions about one's own body.

Comparison of organ sales to risky occupations like coal mining and military service.

Concern that organ sales would primarily involve those in poverty.

Critique of the idea that organ sales are exploitative and unjust.

Consequentialist argument that selling organs could save lives and reduce suffering.

Empirical objection that a paid organ system might decrease voluntary donations.

Proposal to switch to an opt-out organ donation system with tax incentives.

Ethical question regarding who would volunteer to sell their organs and the potential exploitation of the poor.

Discussion on the potential decrease in organ donation if organs are for sale.

Reflection on whether organ sales would increase the number of organs available or just redistribute existing donations.

Introduction to applied ethics through the lens of organ sales.

Invitation for students to consider the ethical implications of organ sales and personal body autonomy.

Transcripts

so now we're talking about selling human

organs remember there's this organ

shortage there's especially a shortage

of things like kidneys and livers and

some people believe that permitting the

sale of organs would help

relieve that shortage and if everyone

but the donor is already getting

something out of it either money like

the doctors and the surgeons and the

hospitals and all those people are

making money and the

person who's receiving the organ is

getting the benefit of that why not let

the

donor us

be able to

get something out of the process too and

sell it so there's some different

schemes for these different organ donor

places you could pay someone while

they're alive for organs that they would

have after their death and so you would

have some kind of legal contract

contractual agreement that when you die

your organs will go uh you could pay

relatives for the rights to organs of

recently deceased loved ones um or you

could pay the individual who needs

money to sell a kidney or part of a

liver to another

serious proposals hold first that the

sale should be limited to individual

countries because if you didn't if you

let anybody

sell organs from one country to another

then it would really just be rich

countries using poor countries as organ

farms right

because you know the the exchange rate

of the dollar you can make a huge uh

bargain by

buying someone in a poor country buying

an organ from someone in the poor

country so most serious proposals would

say look if we're going to do this we

have to have some restrictions it can

only be within like a country or

community or something like that you

can't go outside of those because that

would be taking advantage of poor people

another

part of this year's proposals is that

all sales should go through a public

agency to regulate them so that

there's not money being exchanged

between individuals but rather through a

public agency and then uh the third part

is the prices should be set at generous

levels for the donors so let me talk

about a few arguments for the sale of

human organs now these are more

deontological arguments which we haven't

really talked about yet we've talked

about consequentialism

these are deontological

arguments for the sale of human organs

but you'll see what that means coming up

and i don't think you need to know much

about theory in order to understand the

arguments themselves so the way that

this goes is that people have the right

to make decisions about their own bodies

even harmful decisions like alcohol

abuse we don't

forbid people from making bad decisions

about

abusing alcohol for their bodies you

know if they're doing something in

public they can harm people yes we do

but um people can make harmful decisions

and so as long as those decisions do not

substantially affect others now we know

that they affect others right if i have

an alcohol problem that affects my

family

but as long as they don't substantially

affect others

the argument goes we should permit them

to do as they please if some people want

to sell their organs they should be able

to do so according to this argument

unless someone can give a compelling

reason to override their wishes now

think about this

people can already sell their labor in

risky occupations for good pay coal

mining is a very risky

occupation but it pays well deep sea

diving you know fixing pipes under uh

water is a very dangerous job

firefighting is a dangerous job

military service and just war um we have

permit people to do all of those kind of

things and they're risky things you know

military service firefighting deep sea

diving all of these are ice road

truckers

those things all of these are dangerous

jobs and we allow people to do that for

compensation we say okay yes you can

do a dangerous job

to make more money and those occupations

are often riskier than organ donation

itself think about being a front line

soldier or something like that

so the argument goes it's inconsistent

not to allow people to sell organs i

should tap my tip my hat a little bit as

i'll say at the end i am not in favor of

selling organs and i'll give you reasons

why later but these i'm trying to do my

best to show you the arguments for um

that people say

might work for

the ability or giving people permission

to sell their organs now a problem with

this is that

it primarily would be only those who

really need money um who donate their

organs right um

it's not going to be a rich person

donating organs for money because they

don't need the money so again this is

kind of taking advantage of

poverty in a way

if we think of the idea as i do

it's just my politics you don't have to

agree with my politics i never care if

people agree with my politics but i

think poverty itself is an injustice in

a wealthy country

i think we could eliminate poverty and

you would only really find people

turning to organ donation living

donation or living sell sell sell of

organs if they were in um poverty and so

um

it if if that is an unjust system if

it's unjust for there to be poor people

in a rich country and i think there are

that is unjust then you can't have this

injustice driving or motivating the

decision a

a person well off won't turn to selling

an organ right and if it's already

unjust that there are people in such a

state that they would

sell an organ for that then

that looks like it would be it's a

problem with the system and we can't use

an unjust system to justify a practice

now

the problem is that this problem equally

applies to risky work right um and if we

some people say well look if you say

then if i hold the position that i do

that only poor people are going to turn

to this it is also true that only

people who

maybe

lack the opportunities

of wealthier people

maybe only those people will turn to

those risky professions in order to make

money because the people that had

opportunity

can get the money otherwise right

and so

that this problem that i'm mentioning

for the sale of human organs would apply

equally to risky work and some people

say well that means that this is like a

reductio ad absurdum argument you know

and you would say well

if the argument you're making against

the cell of human organs would also

make it improper to allow people to sell

their organs for dangerous jobs

then you have done then we can see that

that argument is wrong right because we

don't agree

that you can't sell your labor for risky

jobs

some of us might be just willing to bite

the bullet we might just be willing to

say yeah

you shouldn't uh

allow people to sell their um their

labor in dangerous work now military

work might be a little different right

because you might have ideals about

protecting and that's what police

officers

ideally do and soldiers ideally do is

protect people right

and so you might say that that ideal of

protecting people would override the

risky work but in other cases maybe not

just to make money

so

maybe that argument is good maybe it

isn't so let me talk about a

consequentialist argument for the sale

of human organs the argument is that

permitting the sale of organs would

solve the problem of the severe lack of

organs available for transplant the

majority of people on organ waiting

lists never receive an organ or they

have to wait for years the risk to the

donor is minimal we've talked about that

already and so it would save more people

it would increase happiness it would

reduce suffering if we allow people to

sell their organs now some people might

object to this empirically

people typically say that they don't

volunteer to donate

because they fear they will not be

treated will have their organs

prematurely donated which isn't true as

we talked about before

a paid system though would likely

increase that fear not reduce it if you

know you've been paid

to have your organs harvested then i

think that might increase the fear that

people will not treat um you uh it and

it wouldn't it might reduce not only

this the cell of organs but it might

reduce the idea of donating organs if we

started looking at people as these

flight commodities

if organs are

for sale it's easier to loan money to an

individual a loved one than to donate a

body part like in our current system so

some people argue empirically if you

allow the sale of human organs it would

reduce the number of donated freely

donated organs and so you would still

have the shortage so it wouldn't answer

the problem

so let me ask this ethical question

we've already kind of touched on it who

would volunteer to sell their organs is

it rich people or poor people

obviously rich people don't need the

money to sell the human organs so it

looks like we're exploiting the poor for

their organs and this is my take for

what it's worth you don't have to agree

with me in our current

unjust in my opinion

economic system organ donation would

exploit the poor for the sake of the

rich we should switch to an opt-out

donation system rather than the opt-in

donation system that we have maybe give

some kind of tax incentive for donating

it wouldn't be exp exploitative of the

poor since tax incentives don't really

affect the poor right uh so if if we

gave out tax incentives for

um donating your organs instead of

giving money

then i think a lot more middle-class

people um who don't need middle-class

and rich people who would uh benefit

from a tax break right uh poor people

typically don't have to pay at least

federal uh taxes

um you know they pay a little and then

they get it back

so tax incentives don't really work that

well for poor but it might work very

well for middle class and richer people

and so maybe we could do that instead of

doing the

other um the other service now this is

also true of a lot of things like i said

before dangerous jobs military service

those uh and that might be a reductio

but it might just be a way of us saying

well then we should also do something

similar with military service and

dangerous jobs and things like that and

have people

incentivize people from different

classes to do that not just people who

really need the money anyway

i think this issue of organ uh sale is

really interesting a lot of students i

think typically at the beginning think

oh yeah i should be able to do with my

body what i want but then if we think

about how it really does seem to exploit

poor people um we are raised with some

ethical questions and we're also

wondering if it even does what it says

it's going to do will it really increase

the number of organs or will it just

reduce the number of people who donate

organs and then even everything out

anyway i hope you enjoyed this our first

applied section we're going to dive into

some

different theories and then get some

more applied stuff later but this was

our first little dip into applying the

theories that we're talking about uh

ethical theories that we're talking

about and i hope you enjoyed it i really

enjoyed

talking about it