[ineedtosleep]

He actually brings a point I've been wondering since the entire thing started: Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?

Downvote me to oblivion if necessary, but this really is a genuine question which, by the looks of things, has the answer of: His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list.

[SandB0x]

> Downvote me to oblivion if necessary

Don't do this. Please read: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ("Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you.")

To answer your question, nobody is suggesting his life is more important. In fact, as is mentioned towards the end of the article, by getting more people registered through this relatively high profile campaign he is increasing the chances of finding a match for others in need of a bone marrow transplant.

[oz]

"Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?"

He is not more important in an objective sense. Most people would agree in an abstract sense that all lives are equally valuable, but would readily save their child rather than another if it came down to it. Why? Because they value the life of their child more than the life of another's child, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Amit, as a member of the startup community, is our child, as it were. Due to this commonality, we feel closer to him than 'faceless' people on the list. So your last sentence might read: "His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list to us."

[jstn]

In reply to daenz:

What makes you say the community is ignoring the faceless sufferers? Registering as a marrow donor isn't exclusive to one person, you could potentially save the life of a stranger decades from now. For the awareness he's raised Amit may potentially be saving many lives besides his own.

To me it's incredible that helping one person evokes so much shrieking about how many others that aren't being helped, what about those who never help anyone?

[daenz]

> What makes you say the community is ignoring the faceless sufferers?

I've never seen ONE "help so-and-so (who is not from our community) with money/bone marrow/whatever" thread on here. Only when it effects someone in this community does this community give a shit, and you can't deny that. And the irony, as I pointed out before, is that it's going to take someone most likely not from this community to save Amit. I really can't make it any more clear.

[jstn]

I just don't understand responding to someone helping someone else by demonizing them for the all people they're not helping. Amit is a member of our community, he's raised awareness for an important issue, what's the problem here?

And I disagree, the whole point of this drive is that the magic donor most likely will be someone mobilized by this community since there are so few potential matches as it currently stands.

[daenz]

Anyone else see the irony of a community fighting to save a person's life, while ignoring all the other "faceless" sufferers, when the life that they're fighting for probably depends on the good will of a "faceless", anonymous person? Serious question.

[nyellin]

By getting tested you increase the chances that everyone finds a match, not just Amit.

[homosaur]

I'm not sure you know what "irony" means.

[daenz]

Sad time when HN doesn't downvote your non-contributing comment out of spite for my comment.

[khafra]

Since donors, once added to the database, can save anyone in need who's a match, it doesn't affect the outcome whether HNers join to save Gupta or a faceless stranger.

I guess what's upsetting you is that a community member makes people care enough to get involved, while faceless strangers don't make us care enough to get involved. This seems like the sort of position people realize is incoherent and unsustainable, once they analyze it.

[sbashyal]

There are a couple of reasons this case is different in a way relevant to HN community:

1. Amit's friends have been using current technology to campaign for the cause (e.g.: https://twitter.com /#!/search?q=%23ISwabbedForAmit) and this news proves the success of the campaign

2. Amit himself is a Hacker. He is one of us! Many people die each year, we don't discuss all of them like we discussed Steve Jobs.

3. He is helping build the database for future transplants

[synnik]

When I first saw his headlines a while back, I had the same question...

But there is a very reasonable answer - he is bringing to light a gap in the availability of bone marrow for his particular ethnicity. It is not that he is personally more important than anyone else... it is that he, and others like him, are under-served. Using his connections to raise this issue not only helps him, but should help anyone in his same situation.

[blhack]

He isn't, it just so happens that he is a member of our community.

I'd bet that your friends, family, and coworkers take a bit of an interest in your personal life. Amit's friends and coworkers just happen to be a very very large group.

[tlrobinson]

In addition to the other answers, raising awareness and getting people to sign up to be bone marrow donors can potentially help a lot more people than just Amit.

[_delirium]

Ingroup + prominence I'd guess, as in many communities. For example, if a well-known punk-rock guitarist had a similar issue, he'd probably get similar exposure in that community (more than someone not from that community, and more than a "mere" fan who wasn't a prominent guitarist).

[bermanoid]

Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?

Does it matter? His situation is bringing attention to this, and getting more people to add themselves to the registry. Whether or not he is personally saved, it's likely that several other matches will be made as a result, so I'd say it's a good thing overall.

By my understanding, this isn't a matter of supply and demand, or him trying to "jump the line" by making a direct appeal to people - it's a matter of sheer volume, it's relatively difficult to find donors for anyone that match well, so having more people in the system is a good thing for everyone.

[goatcurious]

his life is as important as any other - however, he has done an invaluable service to the entire south asian community by taking on the issue of bringing more to the bone marrow registry. From any account, the campaign has been a revelation. He deserves to find a match, and live many more terrific years. So do others. But I'll be extra happy if he does too.

[ineedtosleep]

In reply to _delirium:

Right. I guess the thing that bothers me about the entire thing is that this is done at such a bigger scale than other similar requests, especially from the past.

Requesting help from a small group, like family is one thing, but requesting help from the internet doesn't settle right for some reason.

[jstn]

If you were facing death and your best hope at survival was crowdsourcing help on the internet you'd... what, politely decline to bother anyone in the internet community you've been a major part of? Skip the chance to raise awareness for something that could save the lives of many others besides yourself? Die alone knowing you saved someone half a second reading an HN headline that wasn't directly relevant to them?

[mikeash]

The help they requested will go to help an entire ethnic group of people, not just one person. This effectively a massive charity operation using an individual story as a hook. I don't understand how anyone could possibly criticize this as being selfish.