Week 3 Blog
Richard Epstein's essay Thinking the Unthinkable: Organ Sales allows readers to indulge into a new way of thinking. I personally have never given thought to the freewill sale of organs but Epstein provokes the reader into seeing both sides of the issue and ultimately, tries to persuade them into his way of thinking, which is for organ sales.
There are times when the author contradicts himself such as when he states "Cash (or any other form of compensation, such as insurance) might be the engine to move us to the preferred outcome of more lives saved." and then later states "But the poor and disadvantaged will not be sought after, let alone exploited, because they do not make ideal candidates for organ transfers. Quite the opposite." These two statements combined left me pondering: The people who do have money are less likely to be hungry to sell organs than those who don't, and those who don't have money and need it, are not wanted. Later Epstein clarifies his statements by adding "Organized markets would keep these people out of the system by concentrating on that smaller sliver of the population in excellent health but which has some powerful financial reason to take the quite extreme step of selling organs...".
I agreed with the statements Epstein made about organ donor cards. If they are more often then not ignored or vetoed by family members then what is the point of having them? There should be some legality in the cards because it is obvious that the owner wanted to donate organs. I belive it is of the greater good to the human race for everyone to participate in cadaveric organ donations and maybe thats where we should start looking before we open the sale of organs worlwide.
Epstein also made a good point when he questioned where the money would come from. Obviously the rich are the ones who could afford them but I doubt the government or insurance companies would be thrilled to become financial backers for organ sales. There is obviously a shortfall when it comes to organ donations but I belive other avenues need to be explored before resorting to bribery to sell one's organs.
Epstein wrote a powerful essay that left me wrestling many new ideas in my mind and his method of persuasion shows that he understands both sides and by doing this he allows the reader to make up their own mind about the issue. I am not sure if the essay was persuasive to me but it did leave me with many questions that I have never had before.
1 comment:
I agree with you that the two statements about economic gain as encouragement are problematic. Does Epstein's later comment clear up the contradiction for you? You don't say in your post.
I think causing you to question a position is part of persuasion. It is difficult to get a person to change his or her stance completely, but if you can get your audience to 1. hear you and 2. think about what you've said, you've brought them a long way.
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