HUMAN DIGNITY AND THE MARKET
Part I
For long time I had planned to write a blog about this subject matter but after watching the Four Corners program on ABC1 last night about trade in human organs (mainly kidneys) I said to myself its now or never.
In brief the ABC program focused on two prominent nephrologists one in Istanbul Turkey and the other in Tel Aviv Israel. The kidneys were purchased from the impoverished in various towns in the Philippines through agents. The agents, normally middle aged women with iphones awaiting message specifying the particulars required to match the recipient’s either in USA, Canada, Australia, or Western Europe. The program also focused on all the players involved in the game resulting in the kidney transplant industry. One transaction involved young married man with two children aged five years or under, both bare footed. This man said that he was told he will get $2,000 for his kidney and showed the scars from the operation and telling the interviewer that he had sold his kidney for $2,000. Unbeknown to this man was the cut of the agent‘s fees of some $600 leaving him with $1,400 for which he appeared grateful. Another man who sold one of his kidneys for similar amount said his other kidney was failing and he was in moderate state of renal failure. Neither the Turkish nor the Israeli nephrologists had any compunction with either the transaction or the fees they received undertaking the operations. To quote the Israel nephrologists: ‘one puts a price on human life and death?’ Perhaps not but officially the trade in human organs is illegal. Despite the fact both nephrologists were arrested they walked out of court unscathed and both were continuing their busy profession.
Is there any aspect of humanity that distinguishes a human being from God’s other creatures that is still sacred or sacrosanct not caught up with market forces and can not be purchased with money? Such things as cherished memories, community values, friendship, neighbourhood, believes, secrets other things that distinguish us human? Probably not! If someone sees a dollar to be made he or she will either get the story through the written or visual media. Oscar Wilde once said: ‘one may know the price of everything but the value of nothing’. That is very true. If one leave it to market forces one is taking the judgmental argument as the market is neutral. Ancestral inheritance, walls, ceilings, doors and window that saw generations after generations of the same family imprint their individual stamps one them should the market be the judge of the monetary value?
In the next blog I will deal with the question where market forces and society’s abandonment of responsibility leaving human values to the whims of markets.
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