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by spencerchubb 582 days ago
How is it exploitation to legalize more types of consensual transactions?
2 comments

Financial transactions are rarely a matter of consent between equals. There is almost always a power imbalance, particularly when medical issues are involved.

The law, in its majestic equality, allows rich and poor alike to sell their internal organs to try to make their power bill payment next month.

That's without explicit coercion (sure, I'll do X for you, so long as you sell your kidney).

That consent can only occur between equals is a principle that only gets applied to things people want to ban for other reasons.

We all buy things daily from entities with much more power than ourselves, for example.

Focusing on equal relations is missing the point, which is that the corporation (a more powerful entity) is selling you things, not the other way around. “Punching down” isn’t acceptable, and all that.
I think we can all agree that coercion would be bad here. It is currently illegal and should remain illegal.

Hypothetically, if someone wants to sell a kidney to pay the bills, and they are of sound mind, the government shouldn't stop them.

What if I offer someone a million dollars to commit suicide and harvest all their organs? Will desperate people accept that offer? Is it ethical?

That is rhetorical, it is highly unethical. And similarly, desperate people will sell organs under financial pressure and limited or no regulation on the sales tactics or accurate disclosure.

A more effective plan would be to offer $100-$1000 cash payment at time of registration when getting a license to be an organ donor. It is hard to find matches. Better and more economically efficient to have a broader pool of potential donors, for all parties. And since the donors are already brain dead, no ethical dilemma.

I don't understand this analogy. If someone is dead they cannot use a million dollars
A million dollars for their family can be life changing.
People have sacrificed their lives for less money for their family than that.
Family can object to organ donation from dead relatives where I live.