ABSTRACT
This selection concerns “international transplant tourism,” in which people in wealthy countries receive kidneys from live donors abroad. The issue draws attention to the intersection between technology and ethics (see also selections 34, 50, 56) and raises level-of-analysis issues as discussed in the previous selection. To illustrate, the analysis might be allowed to settle on the question of whether kidney donation harms the giver during the operation and immediately afterward. If so, the analysis could be moored to technical questions about which sufficient scientific uncertainty can be generated to challenge the evidence that in fact living with one kidney is not the same as living with two, especially in settings of poverty and all they imply about living conditions and access to medical care. This is aside from the negative social, economic, and psychological impacts on donors and their families.
