Cut the crap
BBC News and The Independent report on a Dutch woman who is donating a kidney in a reality TV show, and contestants compete in order to get the kidney.
And, of course, the moralists are out saying that it’s immoral.
Quite why is not explained.
If you want to sell your kidneys or let people compete for them on a reality TV show, I think that’s absolutely fine.
You own your own body and should be able to do with it as you like. Now, the idea of people competing for a kidney may seem fairly disgusting, and, if I lived in Holland, it would be unlikely that I would watch this show - but I think it’s fine that people want to do it.
If people had the option of donating organs under their own terms (whether it be selling them or setting up a reality TV show and getting people to compete for them), it may mean that more people will donate organs. That is the only moral consideration, as far as I am concerned.
That people might want to make money from their kidneys should not concern us. If we allow people to make money from their labour, their image and their sperm and ova, I think we really ought to allow people to do what they want with their organs.
