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

harchinam harchinam at gmail.com
Tue Nov 1 12:29:48 PDT 2011


>
> 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)?
>

You have a point, but I don't think it is as simple as that. Kidney
donation is voluntary [at least if you don't live in China :-(] and so the
person that would donate a kidney to the rich man because he desperately
needs the money might never donate to the poor person and so both would die
in that case [if there were no other people willing to donate]. At least if
a person donated because he was motivated by money so one of the cholim
would live.

Your argument above is the reason why there are lists that are supposedly
based on medical need, so that the sickest person gets the first organ
donated and those who can wait must wait, but this method does not
guarantee that people who can donate will do so.

*** Rena
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