Did you know that at any given time in the United States there are currently more than 100,000 people waiting for an organ transplant, with most of them in need of a kidney. Or that seventeen people die every day while they await a transplant?
Well, get ready New Hampshire to become a money-making solution to that nation-wide problem! Enter Rep. Jason Gerhard (R-Northfield), fresh from a dozen years in prison for procuring pipe bomb making materials and weapons in support of Ed and Elaine Brown of Plainfield, NH, the couple who refused to surrender to authorities for tax evasion convictions.
But I digress. . .
Rep. Gerhard is of the opinion that more donations would be forthcoming if a “free market” were to come into existence. Perhaps the wait time for a life saving organ would decrease also. I guess selling one’s organs would go a long way in helping to pay property taxes or make a car payment, just sell a lung. We’ve all got two. . .
It's a matter of personal freedom, according to Gerhard, “I think we gotta go back to the old adage: my body, my choice,” he said. “You should be able to do what you wish with your body, since it is your body, and the government does not own your body.”
I can’t believe he actually stated that in public. And as any woman of childbearing age will tell you, that “old adage,” in the world of Republicans, doesn’t apply to them.
Thankfully, cooler and brighter minds think otherwise. According to the New England Donor Services this proposed bill is not only unethical(!), but would contribute to an unfairness in the waiting period. Can’t you just see it? The wealthy would be able to afford first dibs on that coveted kidney. The rest of us. . .not so much. . .
Luckily, federal law prohibits the sale of organs, notwithstanding last years trifecta discovery of a Goffstown, NH couple, Harvard Medical School and body parts.
As of this astonishing revelation, so far, there is no vote scheduled yet in the NH House!