John Stossel is on Fox News advocating for the trade in human kidneys.

[Mojo Electro]

Is that guy just acting out a parody of himself?

What the actual fuck??

I'm speechless.

[longship]

1. You know... Libertarian! Everything is for sale.

The next thing you know, people will be getting their kidneys ripped out in hotel bathrooms.

[Zeke L Brimstone]

14. Perhaps he might acquire a brain in such a market

[Nine]

40. and a heart. (nt)

[KT2000]

2. this idea has been

in the free market writings for some time. You better believe it will become an issue because they have been trying for this. The fact that Stossel has put it out there on tv could mean it will become an issue soon.

I read one paper that said people will become healthier because they would want to be the one chosen to sell their organs.
In some black markets, organs can serve as collateral on loans.

[dchill]

3. Stossel is just showing us all, once again...

the tiny peanut that is his brain.

[TexasTowelie]

4. It's no wonder that he is a propenent for organ sales--

he needs to buy a brain!

[dchill]

45. Ha Ha! Exactly.

Being single-minded will never be a problem for the Stoss.

[dipsydoodle]

5. The only organs which should be sold

are the likes of Hammond B3's.


Kidneys are strictly for eating on toast.

[Frank Cannon]

6. Every Stossel thread has to have a link to this video.

You're welcome.

[alphafemale]

18. John Stossel is a monkey ass punk. One of the few people on the planet to be sucker slapped twice.

A thing of beauty.

Yes. Professional wrestling is obviously "fake." In that it is choreographed and the winner is predetermined. It is also a form of entertainment. A very physically rigorous form of entertainment.

Magic shows are also fake and entertainment.

Stossel would have also deserved a face slap from David Blaine if he said "Admit Magic is FAKE!"

[Frank Cannon]

20. Stossel could tell me that he thought my job was real...

and I'd still slap the shit out of him. He's just got such a slappable face.

[alphafemale]

26. Slap that porn stache....lol

[Mojo Electro]

24. Thank you for this.

I'd seen this before, but I forgot that it was Stossel.

You are right, every thread about him should have this. It's his magnum opus. One of the great highlights of his career.

[dsc]

7. One does have to wonder though why everyone but the donor gets to profit from the organ

I would have a problem with trafficking of organs from the living but as for ones from the dead, I fail to see why those that come from the dead can't be paid for. Let the family make some money to pay off the funeral or for something else if they wish.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. Nobody is getting rich transplanting kidneys.

That is just silly. Putting organ transplant into a market based system is a horrible idea.

[dsc]

15. I am not saying the kidney should go to the highest bidder

but I fail to see why people who give organs shouldn't get some money for doing so. Among other things it might increase the availability of organs.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. How much should they get?

Who is paying for it? If they don't like the price can they hold out for more?

[dsc]

19. Two things

first I don't think money should go to live organ donors since that would give a problematic incentive. But as to the families of dead ones, I think a set flat amount is not unreasonable. Oh, and one other thing, I think Frist did become rich doing transplants.

[MADem]

30. Yes, they are. There is a documentary on HBO about the topic. LOTS of people getting rich--just

not the poverty stricken donors. This is what primed the pump on this whole conversation.

http://hbowatch.com/hbo-fall-documentary-tales-from-the-organ-trade/

[Warren Stupidity]

36. Right. The person I was responding to wants donors to be paid

in the legal donor process because other people are getting rich from this process. Yes there is an illegal black market, mostly not in this country, but that is not a good reason to start paying donors.

I take it you support Mr. Stoessel and others who would like to end government socialist organ transplant programs?

[MADem]

38. WTF? You have a reading comprehension problem in a big frigging way, pal.

Why would I give you a link to that film if I supported that asshole?

Maybe you should read the whole thread, look at my comments throughout, and then get back to me.



The fact of the matter is, people ARE getting paid--even here in the USA. You see a guy in the film who traded his organ for twenty grand on Craigslist.

Is it right? Fuck no. Can it be stopped? Probably not--not until we can learn how to "grow our own" and here's hoping that's the next step in medicine. Everyone knows that cadaver organs are sketchy at best, family donors are in short supply, and people off the street who are altruists are hen's teeth.

[dsc]

48. I would like all of medicine to be socialized but it isn't

we let doctors profit and refuse services due to lack of money, we allow hospitals to profit and refuse services due to lack of money, we let big pharma profit and refuse services for lack of money, but we draw the line at one, and only one, group of people in this process and lo and behold they are the ones who aren't rich and well connected, quelle surprise.

[KT2000]

47. Hospitals get rich

When China changed to a cash healthcare system their transplant business skyrocketed. Coincidently, prisoners disappeared and were never heard from again. The Fulan Gong (sp?) roundup was suspected of being a source for organ transplants.
"Ethics in Organ Transplantation: Perspectives and Challenges, edited by Nirmala Rao Khadpekar, Icafai University Press 2008

[MADem]

50. Brokers get rich.Surgeons get rich. The only people not getting rich are the impoverished donors.

There is a film on HBO documentaries this month that is an eye opener, and probably primed Mister Moose-stashes interest in the topic.

[Enrique]

8. on the surface not a bad idea

there's a black market now, why not make it legal?

I'm sure there are reasons not to allow it, but it's not 100% obvious to me what the reasons are.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. It is a stupid idiotic right wing dystopian libertarian idea.

Please document the extent of this alleged black market in kidney transplants in the United States.

[MADem]

33. Americans travel abroad to get black market kidneys.

Again, I invite your attention to the HBO documentary.

It's appalling.

[duffyduff]

21. It ties into something called human dignity.

We should NOT be trafficking in human beings, including trafficking in body parts.

[Kermitt Gribble]

31. Because transplants

would only be available to the highest bidder. The non-wealthy would be left to die because we can't outbid a billionaire for a new kidney, heart, etc.

[valerief]

9. He's the whoriest of the media whores. I'm surprised he isn't on Fox in a green wig and fishnets. nt

[Starry Messenger]

10. let's start with his.

[JaneyVee]

13. Here's a radical idea: how about higher wages and keeping your kidneys?

[99Forever]

17. ^^This^^

That it is suggested that people sell body parts to survive in this country, says just how off into the deep end of "sacred capitalism" we have gone.

[Whisp]

37. I can't believe what I am reading here about this!

what the lousy hell?!!!

What you said is the truth. How can anyone get suckered into this horrific thinking?

[99Forever]

49. Who? You ask.

The same fools that think raising taxes on the 1% is going to benefit them.

[Nine]

39. What are you, some kind of commie?

[alphafemale]

22. What pornstach face really wants is for the rich to be able to harvest organs at will.

Doesn't matter if you want to part with it or not.

A person "better" than you needs it.

[Mojo Electro]

23. Exactly.

He literally laughed off the idea that rich people harvesting the organs of perfectly healthy poor people (sometimes for as low as 2,000) could be exploitation, or that a person in a poor country selling a kidney for a few thousand dollars to a rich westerner might not fully appreciate the gravity of that decision.

John Stossel has this peculiar mental twist. He has zero concept that anybody else's experience in life might be different than his own. In his mind, everybody is John Stossel. The rich Stossels should be free to harvest the organs of the lesser Stossels at will.

Everything is for sale. You like to eat don't ya?

I've never been so amused to see a video of someone being sapped in the face. (I admit to being amused at the Danzig one, but I like Danzig)

I'm not against the donation and transplant of organs, it saves lives. But the international trade and brokering of human body parts from people in poor countries. That's about as low-down and shady as it gets.

Mojo

[alphafemale]

25. Didn't he come to fame for exposing child labor of migrants? Dark Harvest...or Bitter Harvest?

Something like that?

Seemed like he was a force for justice once.

He really turned to the dark side.

[Mojo Electro]

27. Hey may well have been at one time.

And I have agreed with him from time to time on certain things.

But this suicide-pact libertarianism that he's all gung-ho for these days has made him seem like a kook.

[Arugula Latte]

34. Yes, he started out as a consumer and public advocate.

He sold out to the man long ago -- I want to say maybe late 80s/early 90s. It's a sad tale of greed and woe.

[HereSince1628]

28. Poor people having 2 kidneys...god's plan to make spares for his "Elected"

The net social direction this must take, makes it a moral obsenity.

[MADem]

29. He probably saw that sad, disgraceful HBO documentary on the topic.

The documentary was good, the attitudes of some in the film disgraceful, and the whole thing is just sad.

Guys selling their kidney for a thousand bucks. One guy sells his kidney and it turns out he has kidney disease, so he will need a transplant.

Recipients are wealthy people who pay over a hundred grand for the trafficked kidney. The surgeon gets about twenty, the "middlemen" get the rest---the donor, very little.

Stossel has LONG been an asshole. Even before he came out of his shell, he had that smarmy stink about him that his Mark Spitz moustache and Mary Lou Retton hairstyle could not hide.

Hey, when he irritates you, just replay this:

[Arugula Latte]

32. I advocate the trade of human mustaches.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

35. Fine. I'll take both of his kidneys in trade for

my old table saw and a seldom-used 10-speed blender. Deal?

[Packerowner740]

41. He's a nut.

[BanzaiBonnie]

42. Has Stossel ever read ANY sort of science fiction?

The fascist, extremist societies, that we are warned about, are those which push such actions on people (the poor).

[arely staircase]

43. of course he is nt

[leftyladyfrommo]

44. He's a real piece of work, isn't he? n/t

[dchill]

46. "What the actual fuck??"

LOL. What a great line!

[gopiscrap]

51. Jesus Christ, I thought that shit was illegal

and if it's not, what a fucking asshole!

[DJ13]

52. Maybe he can trade one of his

for some morals?

[Vinnie From Indy]

53. I'll never forget his Katrina madness

He offered that price gouging is a GOOD THING. He said that if a store owner raises the price on bottled water from $1.00 a bottle to $20.00 a bottle during a hurricane like Katrina that people would not horde water.

I thought to myself that in practice that would last until the store owner got bashed in the head or worse. During an emergency people will get violent to protect their families.

[Mojo Electro]

55. Completely absurd, but absolutely typical.

"It's not gouging if someone is willing to pay!"

[CFLDem]

54. I'd seriously consider selling a kidney

to get rid of my student loans. Heck one could be set for life just for a kidney.