[Avodah] Is there any issur here al pi halacha? - New York man pleads guilty to selling Israeli human organs

[Zev Sero]

On 1/11/2011 2:37 PM, Joseph C. Kaplan wrote:
> Isn't there another downside (assuming full consent, no coercion
> etc. which is an assumption that very well might not be justified); i.e.,
> that rich people whose condition is not as serious as that of poor people
> will live and the poor people will die? Take this example: doctors
> say rich person should live at least three more years with dialysis;
> poor person will die within a month. Is it just/moral/halachically
> permissible (three possibly differing/conflicting standards) for the
> rich person to get the transplant and the poor person to die, when,
> if the poor person got the transplant, both of them might have lived
> (albeit the rich person having to undergo additional dialysis)?

Why shouldn't a rich person have better things than a poor one?  It's his
money paying for it, so it's just and proper that he should have the best.
Rich people's children have better and more nutritious food than poor
people's, and therefore a better chance of survival.  Rebbi ate radish
and lettuce, while the poor of his city presumably got what the communal
kuppah distributed - mainly bread all week, with something to make it go
down, and some fish and meat for shabbos.  Rich people have good warm
clothes, warm and insulated houses, travel in comfort, etc., while poor
people have to do without those things.  So why should medical care be
different?   When you get right down to it, what's the point of money
if it can't save your life when you need it?  The rich should give
tzedakah as well, so that the poor can also get, but they're not going
to get the same as the rich, and they shouldn't expect it.

Still, it seems to me that it would be nice if a rich person who buys a
kidney shows his gratitude to Hashem by sponsoring another one for a
poor person.



On 1/11/2011 4:24 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> But whichever rules of triage are nog'im lemaaseh, may one buy an organ
> in order to facilitate a violation of the rules of triage?

I don't understand how there can be a hava amina that one may not.  The
rules at the end of Horiyos are for a communal kuppah, not for a yachid
helping his relatives and friends, let alone himself.  As for himself,
the pasuk says "kol asher la'ish yiten be`ad nafsho".

-- 
Zev Sero        If they use these guns against us once, at that moment
zev at sero.name   the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will
                 return to all the places that have been given to them.
		                            - Yitzchak Rabin