h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Over dinner tonight (isn't it always) the question of BPS (body part sales) arose.

Is it legal to sell your own body parts to a third party? For instance, if I wished to remove a hand, eye, kidney etc and sell it on to a third party, providing I was not selling it as a foodstuff, would that be legal? Of course what the buyer chooses to do with it is up to him. (I am assuming that most body parts would be bought by men, it just feels more likely!)

I am assuming that the removal of the body part would not be fatal.

PP

Hmm, as far as i know, in teh case of organ transplantation, no money is allowed to change hands for someone to get hold of an organ they need, apparently its considered unethical, whatever that means, beats me.

I don't think that my son was thinking of transplants. More of a collection really.

PP

Well i guess the same would apply, unless they were donated to him, and I'm not too sure how likely that would be.
I'm personally still saving up the near £1000 needed to buy a human skeleton (legally); as that seems to be the fate of skeletons from those who leave themselves to medical science.
I might leave my body to medical science: i just like the idea of bits of me sitting in glass jars on shelves

My doner's card says that any and all body parts may be taken from me after my death, as long as they are used to be transplanted to people, not to sciance.


Dancer

I'm a brain donor.

The reason why it is considered illegal to sell your own organs, is to stop some guy giving a poor homeless person 10 dollars for a kidney. But what the actual punishment is I don't know.

This is why you don't get paid for giving blood, too. But I believe that in some countries you do get paid for blood donations.

[If you die before I do, can I have first crack at the brain transplant? Or did you mean you're donating it cell by cell over all these threads?]
I think my organs are going to be too knackered to be of much use as transplants - although I still have perfect (uncorrected) vison, they'll probably decide the corneas are too old to be worth harvesting, but everyone concerned knows my mortal remains are to go to the nearest teaching hospital to do what they will with.
There seem to be legal difficulties to collecting body parts - I've forgotten the name of the artist who does dissections and flayings of the recently dead but he has trouble convincing the police that the bits have been donated and has said it would be even more difficult if he'd paid for them ante mortem

I would consider a brain transplant from my (15 year old) son to be a good bet. This is based on the virtually unused state of it.

PP

How nice of you to say that.

Going back to the first post, is it actually illegal to sell parts of your body for food? Surely if it's your body you can do what you want with it?

If you do it yourself then it's legal - assuming no-one contests your sanity - but if someone else does it, it may constitute assault even if you give your consent.

By the way, I assume when you say "sell parts of your body for food" you mean that the proceeds of the sale would be used to buy food rather than the selling of, say, fingers as a tasty snack.

The Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly, claimed on national television that he will eat part of his wife Pamela's body when she dies as a special way of remembering her. She gave him a withering look in reply.

I really don't remember in what context the musings about selling body parts as food came about but I assume that there are meats that are not legal to sell as being unfit for human consumption (at least in here the UK). I am thinking of things like er....um....rat?.....worm?....person? It is after all illegal to sell game without a licence.

PP

If a rat is cooked and cleaned properly, why should it be unhealthy?

Well it would be dead. That's not a well rat is it?

Seriously, I believe that in law (?) there may be a difference between "unhealthy" and "fit for human consumption".

PP

"Fit for human consumption" would be about the morality of eating certain things, wouldn't it?

In response to post 13, I mean both ways.