The donation of an organ to sperm donation and "maternal surrogacy" is ridiculous. Giving up an organ you're giving up a part of you that helps you to function properly for the rest of your life. Sure we can do without two kidneys, but that doesn't diminish the importance of distinguishing such an important donation. If we get into auctioning off part of our bodies (not fluids or space) where will that lead us? It is ethically untenable. The AMA has been wrong several times before and is wrong now. Rah rah, NKF.

Actually you can live with only one functioning kidney. Both my mother's kidney's failed and she had to be on dialysis for years before she had a transplant.

Of course you can live with only one functioning kidney, but part of what's so great about nature is that you have a lot of built in spares. One eye gets damaged? You can still see with the other one. Accidentally chop your hand off? Hey, look, you can still pick things up with the other one.

But, if you only have one of something, you do not have a spare. If you are in a car accident and your kidney is damaged, your SOL and now you are on the transplant list.

Personally, I have qualms about other forms of donation and am not ok with renting out peoples' bodies or paying for their body parts, but at least sperm regenerates and you'll never use all the eggs in your ovaries. Being a surrogate or harvesting eggs does involve risk, too, that's true. But why should we bring money into it, which may make people more likely to take risks they are otherwise not comfortable with?

If it was my mom or my kidney, she's getting my spare kidney just like she'd get my spare eye or hand. But I don't agree with enticing people with money. It's not about altruism, it's about not paying people to undertake risks that they would otherwise avoid.

You mean like mining coal out of the ground, washing windows on a skyscraper, working in a slaughterhouse, or policing the mean streets of a major city? Do you find it immoral for employers to pay high salaries to induce people to do those dangerous jobs?

Do you find it immoral for employers to pay high salaries to induce people to do those dangerous jobs? Yes, without the proper safeguards and considerations. Because the danger is apparent, foolhardy and shortsighted people are generally weeded out. And for the ones that work: unions should be set up and organizational structures should help minimize risk.

Organ donation for money is a process vulnerable to predatory practices. Sure, structures can be set up to help that, but the danger to personal integrity is not worth the "experiment."