A thought experiment

The rather bizarre furore over 'presumed consent' for organ donations no doubt still rages, but I haven't gone looking for it so I cannot be sure what idiocies it has reached. I don't intend to add fuel to the fire but instead to illuminate one aspect - the moral and philosophical case for donation - by considering a variation on a common thought experiment.

Imagine you have a button in front of you. If you press that button, someone, somewhere will receive life saving medical treatment. It won't cost you anything and your own health will be unaffected. You will not know who they are, what is wrong with them or anything at all about them andfd they nothing of you, other than that some anonymous person has helped them. Your only contact is that button.

Do you press it? I can't imagine any (rational) circumstance in which the answer would be no. So why don't we do it? I say we don't do it, because unlike most thought experiments, this one is realistic. That button exists - at least metaphorically. It is a Donor Card.

SO PRESS IT!!!!

Comments

[Perry de Havilland]

Your thought experiment would be an *excellent* way to market donor cards. Sadly what the Dismal One is suggesting is requiring people to push that button to NOT assign your property to someone else.