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Philosophy Bites

Tim Lewens on Selling Organs (originally on Bioethics Bites)

Philosophy Bites

Nigel Warburton

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.62K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2012

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Can it ever be acceptable to sell human body parts. Tim Lewens discusses this increasingly pertinent moral question with Nigel Warburton. This episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast was originally released on Bioethics Bites and made in association with the Uehiro Centre with a grant from the Wellcome Trust.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is a biorethics bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

0:07.0

Bioethics is made an association with Oxford's Urehero Center for Practical Ethics and made possible by a

0:13.6

grant from the Welcome Trust. For more information about Bioethics Bites go to

0:18.1

www dot practical ethics dot oX dot a c dot u k or to iTunes you.

0:25.9

Every day people die in hospitals because there aren't enough organs available for

0:29.6

transplant in most countries of the world though all, it's illegal to sell organs.

0:35.0

Governments insist that the motive for donating organs has to be altruistic.

0:39.0

It can't be financial reward.

0:42.0

The idea of being able to sell body parts makes many people uneasy.

0:45.9

But is it time for a policy change? Should we be permitted to flog one of our organs on

0:51.0

eBay say for ten thousand dollars if not why not

0:55.0

Tim Lewins is a Cambridge philosopher and a member of the Nuffield Council on

0:59.4

bioethics.

1:00.4

Tim Lewins welcome to Bioethics Pides.

1:03.6

It's very nice to be here, thank you.

1:05.4

The topic we're going to focus on is the donation of body parts.

1:09.4

Could you say something about the kinds of body parts and the kinds of transactions that occur?

1:15.0

Well, the ethical issues around donation are very pressing and one of the reasons is that they're obviously essential for health and functioning.

1:22.0

It's estimated that even in the UK alone

1:24.6

three people die every day because they're waiting for organs for transplantation.

1:29.6

So there's a very strong sense that this is something that we need to do something about.

1:33.6

It's a very urgent problem when we need to increase the rate of donation.

...

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