[Avodah] Is there any issur here al pi halacha?

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Nov 04, 2011 at 04:26:55PM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: My guess is that this case is unusual, because "omeid lamus" takes it
: out of the ordinary tzedakah category, and puts it in pikuach nefesh,
: and I would have to give it to the starving man. But if not for that,
: I'd be able to give it to either or neither.

: But that's not really relevant to the kidney question, because even
: if the poor person is in front of me, and is truly omeid lamus, even
: pikuach nefesh is not enough to force me to donate my kidney...

I believe you switched cases... I was arguing against kidney brokering,
not selling. Can a broker take money to get a kidney from a poor person
to a gevir rather than putting it in the hands of the people who follow
rules of triage? Realize also that most of the money is going to pay the
broker for assuming risk, and that if he were just paying costs, many
more people could afford to buy one.

We're assuming that:

1- Without the broker, this particular kidney wouldn't go to anyone,
but overall, we have no reason to believe more donatable kidneys would
be available.

2- The system of triage works, IOW, that it maximizes life (or if we
were following Horios: mitzvos). Thus, the broker isn't choosing life
vs life, but will in the long run reduce the number of man-years.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When one truly looks at everyone's good side,
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