Hello Bob,

 LL>> What is immoral about saving lives?

 LL>> Pro-life Republicans claim to be pro-life.
 LL>> Pro-life Democrats also claim to be pro-life.
 LL>> Pro-life Independents even claim to be pro-life.

 LL>> But everybody, regardless of party affiliation
 LL>> or political ideology, says that selling body parts
 LL>> is immoral, and that doing so should be illegal.

 BK> Yep. I am both pro-life and opposed to selling body parts.

Yet it is okay to sell locks of hair to companies that
manufacture wigs.  Some folks choose to donate locks of
hair for cancer patients, which is also considered as
being an acceptable practice by society.  Certainly you
are not opposed to selling or giving away hair, whether
it is somebody else's hair or your own?

 LL>> But nobody seems to be able to figure out why.

 BK> Wrong, I figured it out long ago.

If folks can sell or give away hair, why not other body parts?

 LL>> Now back to reality -

 BK> Ok, who wrote this and signed Lee's name to it?

The otherworldlee Lee.

 LL>> I read a classified ad in the newspaper
 LL>> the other day that literally blew my mind -

 LL>> "Kidney, runs good, $30,000 or best offer."

 LL>> This was a woman from St. Petersburg, Florida.
 LL>> Said her name was Ruth.  Apparently, all she
 LL>> wanted was some money, and selling a kidney
 LL>> seemed to her an easy way to make some quick
 LL>> cash.

 BK> Ok, one reason that one should be illegal is she is too dumb to
 BK> give informed consent. She should have said, bidding starts at
 BK> $30,000.

 BK> Oh, and that was in 1997.

There were so many sites on the web with that same headline
that I have no idea which is the original or what year it came
from.  The idea for a search on google was from an article
in a supermarket tabloid I had read years ago about people
in Pakistan who had sold a kidney for quick cash.

 LL>> Not having anything else to do, and with no LSU
 LL>> or Saints football game being played this weekend,
 LL>> I decided to give her a call.  It was a short
 LL>> conversation.  She told me she got a few serious
 LL>> calls, but then the newspaper refused to run her
 LL>> ad again, warning her that she might be arrested.

 BK> You called her in 1997?

The Wayback Machine is a most wonderful device ...

 LL>> What gets me is why anybody would be willing to
 LL>> sell a perfectly good kidney for a mere $30,000?
 LL>> But then I remembered that people in Pakistan
 LL>> and other parts of the world do this all the time,
 LL>> selling a kidney for much less.

 LL>> good working condition?  People are allowed to
 LL>> donate body parts if they are dead.  Notice I
 LL>> said donate, not sell.  As it is, people have
 LL>> to wait until they are dead before they can
 LL>> donate their own body parts.  Can't sell body

 BK> You can donate a kidney if you are alive, and have two good ones.

You can donate somebody else's kidney and have two
good ones.  But if you donate one of your own kidneys,
you'd best hope you have one good one left.  :)

 LL>> Why not sell body parts while still alive?

 BK> Why not sell body parts while still alive, for delivery after death?

In general, folks can agree to donate (but not
sell) body parts while still alive, but still
have to wait until dead before actually having
those body parts removed for donation.

It is legal to donate certain body parts to
others while all parties are still alive.
Kidneys are one example.  But it is usually
in cases where all parties know each other,
such as family members or relatives.

 LL>> those who are homeless.  Rich and poor alike
 LL>> receive body parts, and millions have agreed to
 LL>> become donors themselves.

 BK> Not quite true. Rich and poor receive body parts, but not alike.

How is a recipient going to know if he/she is receiving
a good body part or a bad body part?  Are body parts given
ratings, such as excellent/good/fair/poor?  Did Dick Cheney
have a choice of which heart he could get before surgeons
implanted him with a new heart?  Or was he just lucky to
have gotten a good one rather than another clunker?

 BK> All too often the rich get what the poor need.

Why should the poor receive what the rich need most?
Most of the poor would never appreciate such a gift,
continuing the same old life they had lived before -
smoking and drinking and getting high ...

 LL>> body parts for free?  And what about waiting lists?
 LL>> Why should there be waiting lists?  If somebody
 LL>> has the money, and is willing to pay the price ...

 BK> If somebody has the money and is willing to pay the price, the
 BK> poor will never get a transplant again.

So what?  The poor will always be with us.  The rich can
at least make a difference, at least while they are still
here.  So might as well keep rich folks around for as long
as possible.

 BK> And that is the basis for not allowing the sale of body parts.

By not allowing the sale of body parts, society is placing
a limit on the number of body parts available.  And that means
more people dying as a result of not enough available body
parts.

You see, rich folks will always be able to get body
parts.  Regardless of cost, or legality.  And rich folks
will always get the choicest of body parts, as they can
easily afford to buy the best for themselves.

People in third world countries are willing to sell
a kidney for $1000.  That might seem cheap to you, but
to them that is a fortune.  Denying them the right to
sell their own kidneys (or other body parts) would be
keeping them in the poorhouse forever.  Denying them
any hope of escaping a lifetime of poverty.

 BK> Walmart is trying to get into providing health care.

There is no such thing as providing health care in
this country.  What we have is sick care, not health
care.

 BK> The Walmart business modely requires cheap suppliers to provide cheap
 BK> prices. That model is why this country has unemployment about 15% in real
 BK> numbers.

Walmart, like many other employers, are falling back
to using part time employees as a means of getting around
Obamacare.  And until this country decides to get real
about health care reform, such problems will continue
to exist.  Obamacare is not universal health care.
It was never designed for that purpose.  What it does
is mandates each state to create its own version of
Romneycare.  Republicans hate that.  For a Cemocrat
to out-Republican Republicans.

 BK> Apply that to body parts.

Walmart selling body parts?  With Mitt Romney
their pitch man?  Hmmm...

 BK> To sell in quantity you have to have a supply of cheap parts.

That can be arranged.  Mormons have the answer, as found in
their very own Book of Mormon.

 BK> That means a lot of donors/sellers.

Mormons have the experience in that category.

 BK> With enough sellers you will be able to buy a kidney for $1000. To
maintain
 BK> that we have to maintain a large number of people in poverty in this
 BK> country.

Mormons are missionaries.  For example, Mitt Romney did
his missionary work in France.  Not sure how many converts
he made, given virtually every Frenchman and Frenchwoman
was already a Christian.  But he did learn how to speak
French.  And how to kiss no wait a minute Mitt Romney
is a family guy and would never French kiss anywone ...

 BK> It's hard enough to get a congress owned by the rich to do
 BK> anything to help lift people from poverty, with a need for cheap
 BK> body parts there will be that much more incentive to keep a
 BK> large portion of the population poor.

Not to worry.  With Obama everything gonna be free.

--Lee

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