Let's say u needed a kidney...

I have a hypothetical question for u...

Let's say u needed a kidney. You've been on dialysis for a year. You find it to be a very agonizing choar.

You likely have to wait another 3 yrs to get a local transplant. This is risky as u could end up dying on the waiting list.

However, for 100,000 usd you could get the entire procedure right away over seas. That would mean that ur donor would be someone who is very poor and willing to donate for compensation.

Let's say u currently could come up with the 100k even though it would set u back a bit in life. So on average u might have to work for another 3 yrs to make back that money. But that would mean ud ensure ur survival.

Would u spend the money to get it done right away or take ur chances and undergo another 3 yrs of dialysis in hopes of eventually finding a free local donor.

What would u do???

a reply to: lavatrance

I would spend the $100,000.00 right away. My only problem is if the kidney is seeked out and stolen from organ traffickers, I would have to make sure no harm was done to another human just for cash. Nice thread!

Organ Traffickers
www.cnn.com...

a reply to: lavatrance

If you want to sell your organ/s it should be completely legal, to hell with ethics, this of course doesn't make it legal to wake up in a ice bath with your kidney suddenly removed. I would do whatever was most expedient and safe, I'd weigh my options but if the 100k looked better i'd go that direction.

a reply to: lavatrance

It wouldn't ensure my survival and is a major risk to spend money of that proportion on a risky procedure. 100k is a lot of money, and to go to a country you don't speak their language or understand their healthcare practices in order to get a kidney transplant, to me it would seem like a scam in the first place. Plus knowing it came from a poor person that may or may not have been illegally murdered for their body parts, well I wouldn't do it. In order to rid a major problem in society is to not support it, and I don't support illegal trading of human parts, that is, killing other people and harvesting their organs for a profit. I'd rather pay 100k to have one grown in a lab and have a 25 year warranty on it.

a reply to: lavatrance

The conditions all sound a little too personal and makes me think this isn't hypothetical at all!

As someone who has spent 3 years fighting cancer (a very frustrating and painful 'chore,') I don't think I'd ever take extreme measures to prolong my life again.

There just comes a certain point when 'quality of life' isn't preserved with the life. (Just my opinion, after having been flushed out the medical machine.)

May I ask why you propose this question?

Really, between the two.. dialysis sounds better than a 100,000 dollar crap shoot.

And if I could sell my kidney for even 1/4 that, I'd do it.

always everything right away.

the time you have to live is the most precious thing you could possibly have. You only have so much of it, and when its gone so are you. You trade pieces of you (your time) for money (hourly labor). This is why i believe taxing labor is an abomination. That is taxing your life, the most precious thing you have. Government should not be allowed to touch that.

My tangent aside, 3 years is a long time. 2-4% of your entire life span. Why waste any of that priceless commodity?

You would need to find a doctor that would give you the prescription for the anti-rejection meds and they might not do it. I don't think you can buy meds like that from other countries. That would be something to check up on.

a reply to: rickymouse

Good call rickymouse. You think of everything.

originally posted by: rickymouse
You would need to find a doctor that would give you the prescription for the anti-rejection meds and they might not do it. I don't think you can buy meds like that from other countries. That would be something to check up on.

My understanding is that they have to sell or cover you for this. Besides, when you think about it if your in north america you're covered one way or another. Here we pay for it all upfront via taxes. In the US my undersanding is you need to buy health insurance. Either way you're paying for it. So They're making money off you when you get a drug, wouldn't that be correct??? I guess alternatively one could get these from almost anywhere now a days. My guess is this is the easy part of the equation even if your not coverd for them. but ya I don't know what I'd do personally. It would be a scary situation to say the least.

a reply to: lavatrance

I would not do it for myself, although I would do it for my children if the donor was being compensated a substantial amount.

I have never understood why organs are "donated". The donor or the donor's family should be compensated. The hospital doesn't donate their services for the procedure, the doctors do not donate their time, why should the most important piece be given away?

I am not advocating that people should get rich off their organ donations but it could help families pay for medical or funeral costs.

originally posted by: rickymouse
You would need to find a doctor that would give you the prescription for the anti-rejection meds and they might not do it. I don't think you can buy meds like that from other countries. That would be something to check up on.

Having a StepDaughter who is about to join the Tranplant List after 14 months of treatment I can say with 100% certainty that this would be more likely to kill than cure.
The variables involved with both the Patient's physical health and the health of the donor organ make post operative care a lottery. I cannot imagine our NHS in Blighty or the American Health Care System stepping in after such a procedure.

Personally, most likely not, but I don't object in principle.

Giving it some thought I think that it could be more ethical to pay a living donor for an organ they can probably live quite comfortably without.

The money would make a lot of difference to a poor family.

Far preferable to harvesting organs from a barely dead person with all the trauma that would involve to them and their family.

I know a person who was on a donor list, had dialysis for a few years and got their call saying they found a matching kidney.

She had her transplant and lived many healthy years without any problems.