[Avodah] Is there any issur here al pi halacha?--selling/buying of kidneys

[T613K at aol.com]

From:  "Joseph C. Kaplan" <jkaplan at tenzerlunin.com>
R'n IE: "The idea is  really scary and makes me very uncomfortable, but 
it's hard to
make a moral  judgment given that everyone comes out ahead - the recipient
gets a kidney  and the donor gets badly needed money."

Not everybody.  The poor  person whose condition is worse than the rich 
person's but doesn't get the  kidney and dies comes out way behind.

Joseph Kaplan 

 
>>>>>>
If a much larger pool of kidneys becomes available I don't know how or why  
the poor person would be any worse off than he is now.  Right now many  
people die because there aren't enough kidneys.  You seem to think a large  
number of deaths is acceptable, as long as rich and poor have an equal chance 
of  dying.  But you must realize that right now rich people have a better  
chance of surviving any illness you can think of, because of greater access  
and  knowledge, better networking, ability to travel to top-notch  transplant 
centers, better nutrition and a host of other factors.
 
Assume that insurance would pay the donor just as it pays the  surgeon.  
How would the poor be worse off?  Or assume that the poor  would be less 
likely to have insurance.  OK, again, if donors were paid,  how would the poor be 
worse off than they are now?
 
Assume that Medicaid would do for the poor whatever it presently  does.  
Our poor man who needs a kidney transplant is already worse off than  the rich 
man with good insurance.  Will he be even /worse/ off when the  donor is 
paid and not only the doctor and the hospital?
 
I bet you could get a lot of people to donate a kidney for the cost of a  
single week in the ICU of an American hospital.  That would end up  saving 
money for insurance companies and for Medicaid.
 
Are you assuming that donors would be paid out of the patient's  pocket?  
Why make that assumption?
 

--Toby  Katz
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