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Comment by thanatos519 | Hacker News Reader

What an American sentiment.

I was hoping the OP comment would be flagged dead rather quickly, but this was essentially my response too. I emigrated from the US to Canada purely because of this pervasive mentality that "I can't suffer you to benefit unless I'm getting something out of the deal". It isn't held by everyone in America or even the majority as far as I've seen - but what's weird is that in the US that view is socially acceptable and that's pretty horrifying to me.

Not everything in life is a transaction where you're either the winner or the loser. Trying to measure things in that manner will lead you to lose out on a lot of joy.

The issue is that you are supporting a bunch of for profit businesses making an absolute killing, while not even throwing table scraps to the key players, the donors.

If someone is going to harvest my Organs and get paid $800K+ per year (California Transplant Surgeon's probably average $750K and some are making $2-3M/year) it's really hard to swallow your and their morally superior tone.

Hey - I absolutely applaud you if you're going to help tear down the private portions of the organ trade business. It should be a publicly managed service like healthcare in general - but for now this is what we're stuck with and a lot of innocent lives are on the line.

I think that, in the long run, it's pretty immoral to throw table scraps at the donors since it'll create some very perverse market incentives to make certain your organ isn't "being wasted" on some penniless orphan somewhere.

I decided to leave insane American wages behind for a society that cares more about egalitarianism - that isn't solving the problem but it's the best contribution I can personally make.

I don't think that's an American sentiment. I've heard people cite religious reasons or conspiratorial suspicions about being left to die in the hospital after suffering a serious injury, but nothing even remotely echoing what OP posted.

I'd prefer not to name specific countries, but there are certain overseas markets with thriving black market organ trades. That is what first came to mind when OP expressed the desire that his family be compensated for his organs. Considering some of these cultures have arguably similar existing customs (e.g. intentionally killing a pedestrian that you have accidentally injured but offering the family a large sum of money in exchange for silence) what the OP stated may not be considered unreasonable to someone looking at the world through that lens.

Certainly I would have found this position harder to justify when I was covered by the NHS. It is likely that I would remain an organ donor there since everyone is pulling together and I wouldn't want to be the one getting in the way.

EDIT: Oh and some of you have asked me questions. This platform has now blocked me from responding for some duration, presumably to stop flamebait or troll threads (neither of which is what I was up to). I am happy to continue this conversation over email (in profile) or alternatively I can have a vaccinated representative meet you in person in San Francisco to discuss over coffee.

Wow, you do seem to have ruffled many feathers. One of your posts is dead and flagged. Anyway I fully agree - you can do what you want with your body, others should have no say.

p.s - see if my profile, or the link on my profile catches your attention.

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