courtesy of slashdot...
short version: according to the beeb, replacement human body parts are a brisk business in which a fully processed corpse is worth USD 250,000—but isn’t this just a case of supply & demand? long version here.
commentary: let me preface my comments first by saying that i think corpses should be treated with dignity. that’s just plain common sense, if you ask me.
having said that: there’s a need for surgeons to practice their techniques to become more skilled. while i find this black market particularly gruesome, it appears that people aren’t donating their corpses while demand remains high, so in classic market fashion, few resources and great demand invariably leads to someone wanting to make a profit.
but all of this sparked a question: insofar as you’ve given the matter any thought, what is your preferred means of disposing of your remains, once you’re done with them? until i read this story i was thinking cremation, myself, but now i’m not so sure!
ed
silverwhisper posted on Mar 19, 2008
| views: 300
Comments
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uniquely-ironic said on Mar 19, 2008....
I'm an organ donor, so if they wanted to use my body to practice surgery on I'd be okay with that. As long as they put the "left overs" in a coffin when they're done and plant me, I'm good. -
GrapeKoolaid said on Mar 19, 2008....
Well... If you were a political dissident in China, or some poor back-water hick there, there's always a chance of you waking up with missing organs... I suppose things could be worse... :)
I don't know... There's a part of me that wants to be cremated and shot into space a la James Doohan(Scotty from the original "Star Trek"), but now I'm starting to warm up to the idea of a mausoleum. Have my bones interred with my descendants, my pets, all my stuff(yes, I'm trying to take it with me), and be discovered by the British Museum years from now. :D
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SeanRenaud said on Mar 19, 2008....
It's a weird cultural thing to me. Honestly you're dead it's over who cares. I know that in general we've been taught to bury our dead or in some cases cremate. As I understand in Japan they always cremate because there isn't a lot of room left. A corpse is just a corpse, it's a lifeless shell. We treat it with dignity because of cultural rules.Fact is if somebody is willing to pay 250k for a body I think it might seriously be worthwhile to make this at least a legal option for people. I know plenty of families that could benefit from that kind of money. Hell even a fourth of that (combined with not paying for a real funeral, just a ceremony and a headston) would pay a lot of bills.Personally I don't really care what they do with my body once i've vacated the premises. -
diabolicdame said on Mar 19, 2008....
Umm.. I don't know, Ed.. I have to say that the idea of people practicing surgery on my body kinda freaks me out a little.Though I think I'd like to donate my organs and then get cremated. I just want to become ash and be gone. poof! -
curmudgeon said on Mar 19, 2008....
I'm with bloc - if there's a market demand for organs, at the very least the next of kin of the donors should benefit.The doctors make money, the hospitals make money, the pharma companies make money, the surgical equipment manufacturers make money, the insurance companies make money, the custodians make money, the funeral parlors who deal with the remains make money, heck, the government gets its cut from every one of the above-mentioned, and the living patients benefit.Why the heck should the "donor" and the donor's survivors be the only truly altruistic ones in this whole transaction? -
SeanRenaud said on Mar 19, 2008....
Who in the nine hells did you just call me? -
D6fer said on Mar 20, 2008....
holy crap! 250k? .....geez......"honey....I made a few revisions to your will" ;p
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silverwhisper said on Mar 20, 2008....
u-i: as am i--that's really all that i would want. my physicality is the least part of who i am, if you ask me.
grape: yes, but would you be discovered in a forgotten, three-foot enclosure that doesn't conform to the building blueprints--that's the question, no? :D but yeah, the james doohan treatment does have a certain appeal, i'll confess.
sean: interesting idea, but who's gonna wanna do that who would actually have body parts worth donating, though?
diabolic: i can understand that, but ask yourself this: would you know one way or the other?
curmudgeon: that's an interesting idea--if anyone's curious, curm's enlarged upon the point here. and btw, that was sean, not bloc. :>
d6: yeah, that was my reaction too--a frigging quarter mill?!
ed -
diabolicdame said on Mar 20, 2008....
Hmmn.. Thats right Ed.. I wouldn't know one or the other.. I think I just loosened up a bit about this issue.. yay! Oh and Ed, I've been looking for you to tell you that you're especially weird :-) -
silverwhisper said on Mar 20, 2008....
yeah, i was offline since yesterday afternoon up until an hour or three ago.
and thank you, what a wonderful thing to be told! i'm deeply appreciative! :D
ed, proud weirdo -
diabolicdame said on Mar 20, 2008....
He he he.. yea that really was meant as a compliment! I blogged about 'weird' today and I'd been looking for you ever since! Glad I found ya..
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silverwhisper said on Mar 20, 2008....
hey, give me a while--it's early yet! :p
ed -
curmudgeon said on Mar 20, 2008....
oops! Sorry Sean!! -
RollingC said on Mar 20, 2008....
I read an article many moons ago (years) about how much the chemicals making up the human body are worth in $. Back then it said that if the chemicals could be efficiently separated the human body they could be worth $10,000. That was many years ago and the figure today could easily be 10 times that amount or more.
Rc
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SeanRenaud said on Mar 20, 2008....
We're cool cur.@silver: Apparently there are already people who have the stomach for this. Hell the organs don't even need to be worth anything if the purpose of the body is to produce a cadaver for medical students to practice on. Hell it's probably better if they are nine ways of fucked up so the medical students can actually see what these things are.Obviously there is money in this it's just going to body snatchers. So lets fix it -
silverwhisper said on Mar 20, 2008....
rolling c: funny, i remember being told in HS bio class that the constituent chemicals making up the human body are worth $1.98. talk about the whole being more than the sum of its parts, huh? :>
sean: really? but how many such people? and i'm not sure if the not medically healthy are suitable for med school students, although there's something in what you say...hm...
ed -
SeanRenaud said on Mar 20, 2008....
I don't know how many people. But you mentioned that some were getting 250k in your original post. So it's obvious there is money being made, it's just that the criminals are getting it. -
RollingC said on Mar 20, 2008....
From what I remember it was the digestive juices that the stomach and lower intestines produced that was the focal point of that article. But that was a good 20+ years ago that I read that so I really can't give details about the matter.I also don't know if the writer of that article was right on the money or blowing smoke. :^(Obviously the organ transplant market would be a highly lucrative one if a bit morbid. The idea, however, of helping someone even after you die is somewhat attractive to me. I've never voluntereed to be an organ donor but I'm thinking about it....although what use these ' old ' bones would be I don't know. Also don't know if there's an age limit for that..........after 50 do they still take donors?Some years ago an American (US) family of 3 (I think) went to Italy and had a tragic accident and their child died. After some soul searching they donated their child's organs to needy children in Italy. One year afterwards they were invited to Italy (I think invited) and they got together with the recipients of the donations and needless to say the parents had something very emotional and fulfilling to say about that encounter.Rc -
silverwhisper said on Mar 20, 2008....
sean: ah--OK, now i understand. and yeah, the criminals always get the money--it's just a question of whether anyone else does, too.
rolling c: i think they'll take donors of any age, assuming good health, anyway. if you should find a link to that story about the cross-atlantic donation, i'd be very curious to see it. :>
ed -
RollingC said on Mar 20, 2008....
14. THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - October 3, 1994
Bodega Boy's Organs Given To 5 In Italy
The death of a 7-year-old Bodega Bay boy at the hands of bandits in Italy took a remarkable twist when his transplanted organs helped save the lives of five people in a nation with a severe shortage of organ donors. Nicholas Green died Saturday afternoon in Sicily after being in a coma since Thursday, when he was shot in the head while riding in a car with his family during a vacation in southern Italy.His parents, Reginald and Margaret Green of Bodega Bay, decided to donate his organs.... -
RollingC said on Mar 20, 2008....
I'm still not too good with the link posting business....but here's the story up above.
Had difficulty finding it but finally went to the Miami Herald web site and finally tried
Vacation Accidents in Italy and scrolled down until finding it.
Rc
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silverwhisper said on Mar 21, 2008....
OK, the first comment points to the SF chronicle, but the second comment says miami herald. i can't find it though on either! what search terms did you use on which site?
ed -
RollingC said on Mar 21, 2008....
"Vacation Accidents in Italy" on the miami herald web site. I'm at work now so later I'll try to find it again and be more specific.Rc -
silverwhisper said on Mar 21, 2008....
OK, cool. :>
ed -
RollingC said on Mar 21, 2008....
I managed to sneak into the internet for a little while and couldn't find the original quote that I put up....darn....but found this:20.
Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA) - March 19, 1995
MORE ORGAN DONORS NEEDED IN ITALY THEY CALL IT THE ``NICHOLAS EFFECT.''After 7-year-old Nicholas Green of Bodega Bay was murdered last September on a family vacation in Italy, his parents offered his organs for transplant. So touched were Italians by the family's selfless act, many of them decided to sign up to become donors, boosting the number of donors by 20 percent over what they were in 1993. Before the Green tragedy, Italy had the lowest organ donor rate in Europe. Doctors transplanted the boy's corneas into a 43-year-old man and...
Purchase Complete Article, of 554 wordshttp://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=list&p_topdoc=11&d_sources=location
From the miami herald site I linked onto newsbank site..... :^)
Rc
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silverwhisper said on Mar 21, 2008....
cool, thanks! :>
ed -
RollingC said on Mar 22, 2008....
Hey listen....forget about Human Corpse Trafficking.... This is better.....
http://www.bobsakamano.com/bob_sakamano/2008/03/retardnation--.html
I'm starting my collection with the next box of cereals that I get... LOL :^)
Rc
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