code & rock

I rarely say this outright as I believe most things in life are not black and white but… social scientist Sue Rabbitt Roff from the University of Dundee you are utterly wrong!

If you haven’t yet heard about Sue’s views on why people should be able to sell an organ I suggest you read up on it. You can take your pick of news sources or go for the mail online one which get’s the gist of the story across.

What’s wrong with the argument exactly? Most pressingly the fact that she is condoning financial motivation as a valid motive for a person coming to the decision to give an organ away. Coming to such an important decision should be powered by a deep desire to help someone. A person should feel it deep within them. It’s hard to quantify but the way I like to think of it (and this applies to any major decision in my life) is that when you think of the decision you’ve made that you feel nothing but a deep comfortable calm inside your heart and mind. No nagging doubts and a certainty that in many years time it will remain so.

Money doesn’t factor into any part of the above process and if it’s allowed to be used as a primary motivator of the decision it will almost certainly be followed by regret or at the very least a nagging doubt over the decision for the rest of a person’s life.

The other thing that rankles me with her suggestion is why people need the money. She says they could pay off their student loans with it! Well I’ve already made my opinion clear on that matter so I’ll not go over it again. Suffice to say people should not have to consider selling their organs to finance their education. How about we retroactively take an organ from all the politicians that got a completely free education!

As always I love to hear disagreements (and agreements).

richard@richardjohnashe.com