A comparative moral analysis of Organ Sales
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
♥ Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The difference between a contract and a covenant is the same difference between marriage and prostitution- Scott Hahn, Theologian, Catholic Convert. Whilst one (marriage/covenant) exists for the good of the other, prostitution exists for the good of the agreement (prostitution/contract). It is in this fine line that maybe we can distinguish the morality between organ donation and organ sales.This line i am talking about is highlighted in the example of a teenager's contribution to an old folk's home out of sheer generosity, and another's contribution to an old folk's home for the CIP points he would subsequently get. Many would think that the former teenager's contribution deserves moral praise, whilst the latter perhaps deserves to be frowned upon. If you have heard anyone including yourself wonder whether people involved in any form of altrustic activity are motivated by these tangible incentives, you would know what i mean. Organ donation, like the person helping out for sheer generosity, like what the institution of marriage was conceptualized to be (the heralding of this symbolic giving of one person to another) is premised on the good of the other individual. That, as what many would agree, is what makes organ donation good. One gives life to another for the sheer sake of the other.The intention behind organ sales is completely different. One gives oneself (in Kantian terms the body is part of man's personhood, and that Man's body is a subject and not an object for which one possesses, which means that the manner in which Man uses his body is inherently tied to the moral assesment of himself) for the upholding of a contract. It is not so much the use of money here that is an issue- one could return the generous favour of organ donation with a heap of cash and that would be morally permissible; it is the formulation of agreements between 2 individuals that one's body (or part of) could be used by another. This is where the moral blur is. Let me attempt to throw up this moral dilemma with this hypothetical of three men being in a stranded boat and dying of hunger unless one would sacrifice himself for the other two (this is an American criminal law case of R v. Dudley and Stephenson). Seeing how none of them were willing to be meat for the others, they decided to enter into a verbal contract letting 'fate' decide- they threw dice. Now obviously someone lost and that person was subsequently eaten. Would one justify their actions by saying the person 'contractually' allowed it? Or would an argument be that it is fine because 2 men survived as a process? These could be utilitarian arguments, but if one put on his moral lens, he could not possible conclude that killing him as a result of either his consent, or so that the other 2 could live was the morally right action to take. It is in that same line of thought that Organ sales should not be allowed even though it benefits some other, and even though there is consent, because morally it is still not right.A senior writer from Straits Times have mentioned that the morality behind the intention and morality of the act are two exclusive concepts. That is not completely true: in America, doctors are allowed to increase the morphine dosages for the purposes of easing the patient's discomfiture, and this is not criminalized even though a certain side effect is that the patient's life is shortened dramatically by the morphine use. However, if the intention is to end a life using morphine dosages, the crime committed is essentially murder. The moralilty behind two similar actions is judged differently by intentions! The intention to have sexual intercourse for the purposes of human procreation (sex within marriage) is dramatically different from that of financial gains (prostitution) and the moral take on both actions differ as a result. One would think that even though the goverment has legalized prostitution in Singapore the moral opinion towards prostitution has not been exactly a very liberal one; it would even be startling to know that quite a number believes that prostitution in Singapore is illegal! That is the conservative mindset that we still have, and maybe a reflection of our moral take on the issue of how one should use his or her body. So where it comes to Organ sales, the take should logically be the same as well only if we can swop our utilitarian lenses and put on lenses of morality.
