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Selling body organs
Question: If a tissue donor dies and some of his/her tissue is donated,
should the family be given money or some other benefit? I am a freshman
at York HS and am doing a bioethics project.
Betty A Laliberte
Answer:
An interesting question. In my opinion, a family should not receive
payment for organ donation. That would introduce an economic element
into the decision, which does not seem appropriate. One problem is:
Who will pay? The recipient? What if he can't afford it? Who gets the
organ? The highest bidder? I guess part of my problem with selling
organs and tissues is religious in nature. To me, my life and my body
were given freely to me and they are not mine to sell to someone else.
They certainly do not belong to my family to profit from.
Brian Schwartz
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators.
Argonne National Laboratory, Division of Educational Programs, Harold Myron, Ph.D., Division Director.