Why Shouldn't We Sell Our Bodies to the Highest Bidder?

Discussion Open Forum
#1

Just read this:[quote]
Four other men, including the company’s owner, former dentist Michael Mastromarino, were charged last year with removing bone and tissue from 1,077 bodies at funeral homes without the permission of families. All have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said Mastromarino made millions of dollars by selling body parts to biomedical companies that supply material for common procedures, including dental implants and hip replacements.

In October, seven funeral home directors linked to the scheme pleaded guilty in New York City to undisclosed charges and agreed to cooperate with investigators. They included the director of a funeral home that took parts from the body of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004, defense attorneys say.

Biomedical Tissue Services operated its only satellite office in the Rochester suburb of Brighton and paid funeral homes a standard fee of around $1,000 to lawfully harvest body parts.[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070518/ap_ … body_parts

If there were more competition that price would shoot up. And people in possession of better dead bodies might stand to make a , er…killing.

Not that these folks shouldn’t be reamed for skinning people without their loved ones approval.

It’s just flesh and bone. What’s the big deal?

Or is the inevitable black market so frightening that it puts people off of developing this fertile field of endeavor?

#2

Would they pay extra for ‘celebrity’ implants? :smiley: How about a bone graft from Nicole Smith?

#3

I see an ebay connection here.

#4

Better yet, how about an implant from Nicole Smith?

#5

Hmmmm…good idea… Possibly soon we can have a kind of Soylent Green operation going, only this time the distribution & marketing will be easier.

#6

I think the main problem here is “without the permission of families.”

But when I am alive, I am the one who has the right to manage my body.
After I died, who would have to right the manage my body parts?

Must it be my family?

#7

Is it illegal to enter into a contract to sell one’s body parts after death? I don’t know why it should be. As long as the seller has the necessary mental capacity and is not coerced, why should it be illegal?

For that matter, I have trouble seeing any legitimate reason why it should be illegal to rent out ones body, during life, for any purposes such as sex or anything else. Again, so long as the buyer and seller both have the necessary mental capacity, are not coerced and voluntarily enter into the agreement, why should it be anyone else’s business what they do with their bodies?

#8

Take the bones and tissue without permission ,it still can be called"stealing".

#9

Yes, what’s described in that article is clearly wrong, illegal, and disgusting. . . but profitable.

But to sell body parts with full and proper consent from the donor, that should be ok, although I suspect it’s probably illegal in most countries. It shouldn’t be. If I’ve got a poor family and I sign a contract prior to death to sell my organs to some organ company in the event of my death, then one day I get hit by a car, why shouldn’t my family have a right to sell off my spleen?

#10

Yes, what’s described in that article is clearly wrong, illegal, and disgusting. . . but profitable.

But to sell body parts with full and proper consent from the donor, that should be ok, although I suspect it’s probably illegal in most countries. It shouldn’t be. If I’ve got a poor family and I sign a contract prior to death to sell my organs to some organ company in the event of my death, then one day I get hit by a car, why shouldn’t my family have a right to sell off my spleen?[/quote]

Yup. I started a thread on taiwnHO! about organ donors who started their own preferred recipients club. I think it’s a great idea, and pretty much for the same reasons you listed above MT.

End institutionalized morality NOW!

#11

About the only use a spleen has outside the body is soup, but I think i agree with the sentiment. I just think that being boned by a dead Anna Nicole Smith is just too farking freaky for my taste.

HG

#12

Would you be willing to donate your liver for science and our general amusement?

#13

I wasn’t suggesting selling it for use outside of a body. Presumably the purchaser would be interested in it for internal use, though they should have a right to use it for any purpose so long as the seller was willing and the buyer paid the required sum.

Although it would be an ironic reversal of her marital coitus.

#14

I wasn’t suggesting selling it for use outside of a body. Presumably the purchaser would be interested in it for internal use, though they should have a right to use it for any purpose so long as the seller was willing and the buyer paid the required sum.[/quote][/quote]
I agree. What would someone pay for George Bush’s head on a platter?

“What’s that on your wall?”

“Why that’s a slice of the dalai lama’s heart. The money goes to support Tibetan independence.”

“Cooooool”

“Isn’t it though!”

#15

jd - great idea - you could plasticise them like the German artist. It would beat the pants off of any coffee table book.

#16

[quote=“Mother Theresa”]
I wasn’t suggesting selling it for use outside of a body. Presumably the purchaser would be interested in it for internal use, though they should have a right to use it for any purpose so long as the seller was willing and the buyer paid the required sum. [/quote]

Sorry, should have been clearer, yyou can;t donate a spleen. Rip one ot and they simply cannot be reused.

Although it would be an ironic reversal of her marital coitus.[/quote]

:laughing:

I think quite a bit, but so far no takers, unfortunately.

Obviously you are not even remotely aware of the degree of environmental damage exposure to my liver could do. I am a walking, talking and for now breathing dirty bomb! One day that clock will stop; likely some evil hour in the morning in a Wanchai bar. :laughing:

HG