Organleggers! (Larry Niven)

[j. d. worthington]

I agree that cloning and growing organs (especially if we learn enough about genetic manipulation to eliminate existing flaws in the coding) is the best solution to this, but it is going to have to both become very refined and also affordable for a large percentage before it will begin to replace the often cheaper alternative of donor organs... or of paying someone for their organs, for that matter....

[pyan]

Lois Bujold has a macabre version in the Miles Vorkosigan books - on Jackson's Whole, clones are raised to order, and then, when it's big enough, the buyer has his/her brain transplanted into it.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by pyan

Lois Bujold has a macabre version in the Miles Vorkosigan books - on Jackson's Whole, clones are raised to order, and then, when it's big enough, the buyer has his/her brain transplanted into it.

As I recall, Heinlein himself had something like that going in at least one of his books. If you can manage to produce a clone which has only the portion of the brain which control the various bodily functions (I don't think just the autonomic nervous system would cover it, though), but no higher functions... no "person" in the corpus ... then it's not necessarily a bad idea; but it'd be darned expensive upkeep!

[Lensman]

It's perfectly true, organleggers are alive and well and living in China, and raiding your local funeral home. Actually China combines parts of Niven's "organ bank" executions and organleggers. Executed criminals there have organs removed, without permission from the family, and some (many) are sold on the black market. I don't know if anyone has been executed on trumped-up charges just so his/her organs could be harvested, but if corruption is that widespread in selling organs on the black market, then it wouldn't surprise me.

Personally I have no moral qualms about a clone of me being created for organ transplants, so long as they can figure out how to grow one without a brain. If the clone has a brain, well then it-- or rather, he-- has just as much right to live a full life as I do.

[Dave]

There has been discussion on the radio today regarding Transplant Tourism as a result of this TV programme. Even though the donor only gets £1000 of the £42,000 cost, this practice sits easier with me than people buying the Kidneys of executed Chinese convicts.

Dad prepared to buy a kidney for £40,000
Dec 3 2007 by Ben Glaze, South Wales Echo

A man needing a kidney transplant flew to the Philippines to buy one from a live organ donor.

“Transplant tourist” Mark Schofield was prepared to spend £40,000 so he would not have to undergo daily dialysis for the rest of his life.

The 43-year-old surf wear company boss, of Porthcawl, travelled to South East Asia with his wife Jayne because organ selling – banned in the UK – is legal in the Philippines but did not have an operation.

Mark says: “If I could buy one in this country I would. If the people standing on the moral high ground said what else I can do, I would trade places with them.

“I’m not prepared to lie down and play dead. You’ve got to take the gamble, you can’t sit back and do nothing.

“I haven’t finished my life. I want to do more. I have to look to the best place I can get the kidney.”

Mark, who is dad to 13-year-old Jessica and George, 16, tired of waiting on the British transplant list, so registered with Filipino medics who called him when a donor willing to trade a kidney became available.

He flew out with no guarantee the donor would be compatible or that the transplant would go ahead.

Twenty years ago, after he was first diagnosed, Mark’s mother Jean gave him a kidney. The operation was initially successful, but over time the organ failed.

Even she objects to transplant tourism, saying: “I think it’s wrong.”

But crying as she waves him off from Porthcawl, she adds: “I hoped it would never come to this, but he wants to do it.

“I just hope he gets what he wants.”

Mark, a European surf champion before he fell ill, would not get his money back if his body rejects the kidney – and the 10-day trip alone cost more than £5,000.

Jayne, a nurse, supports her husband but also has doubts about the procedure.

She says: “I’ve got mixed feelings.

“Morally, I think it’s wrong to pay, but if you put yourself in Mark’s shoes and there’s not other option, how long do you wait for a kidney in this country?

“You can’t compare his health with money.”

Ultimately, the kidney on offer proves incompatible, but Mark vows: “I will live without dialysis at some point before I die.”

Viewers can see his trip on a Week In Week Out Special, tonight on BBC1 Wales at 8.30pm, with an hour-long repeat tomorrow on BBC2W at 7pm.

ben.glaze@mediawales.co.uk

[EmperorClobbersaurus]

I think that cloning will prevent such a future from taking place.
Researchers are already isolating stem cells from adults.
I believe that NewScientist even ran an article about how every tooth has some stem cells.
Tailor-made organs sound much less hard and messy than organ-legging.
Recently a man working on his radio-controlled airplane has a propeller cut off the tip his finger behind the nail and before the first knuckle. He sprinkled ground-up pig bladder and it grew back; nails, nerves and all. His name is Ken Spievak.

Now some poor guy taking a leak behind a bar late at night won't have to worry about the tip of his finger being cut off.