(March 5, 2012 at 11:34 am)chipan Wrote: Ok you bring up this point a lot so I'll address it with a hypothetical situation. Say you suffered kidney failure and none of your family members are available to go to you and there are no kidneys on the transplant list for you. A stranger to you who happens to be a match donates his to save your life. Can you accept this? Will you be flooded with guilt? Or will you just be extremely great full for this and go about happy to be alive? I personally would pick the last.
First of all, I would not wait for a stranger to approach me - I would approach one through other channels. I would try for a reciprocal organ donation with another family. I would let it be known through whatever back channels are available that I'm open to the purchase of an organ. If worst came to worst, I'd move to Iran and buy a kidney.
But suppose, before I have a chance to do all that, I'm approached by the stranger. Suppose, as soon as the doctors told me that none of my family members were a match, a guy comes in, says that he overheard everything and offers me his kidney. The first thing I'd do is ask, "Why?". The second thing I'd ask is "What for?".
The best case scenario, the guy asks for money in exchange. Then I'd gladly pay him the amount (if I can) and be grateful to him.
If he says that he wants nothing in return, that he is simply being altruistic, then I'd clearly tell him not to expect anything in return. The fact that he is willing to give up the kidney for nothing means it is worth nothing to him.
The same goes for anyone who expects eternal gratitude (for them or their god) and expect me to change my way of life. In that case, I'd rather die than accept their terms.
Scratch that. In that case, I'd accept their terms, take the kidney and later renege upon it. And then learn to live with my guilt of knowing that I made a wrong choice in accepting the terms I knew were irrational. But atleast I wouldn't sacrifice my rationality, like you apparently would (or did), since I wouldn't lose sight of the nature of my actions.
