[NonIndigenous]

Originally Posted by ShimmeringFaerie

But your argument is based entirely on assumptions. Firstly, you are assuming that this girl won't live as long as whoever does get a kidney. Without being able to see the future, we can't know that. We can't know that the child who does get the kidney won't be hit by a car the very next day.

If I throw a rock in the air, there is a 99.9999% chance it will come back to Earth, unless I one morning wake up to be superman, and throw the rock into orbit instead. Yes, life is based on assumptions of the future, otherwise how the hell can we make any rational choices? We evaluate the possible outcomes of different options the best that we can, and make a choice. One girl has a very high chance of dying prematurely, whereas another might not.

In your example, both kids stand an almost equal chance of being hit by a car the next day. It's a null point. It cancels itself out, whether it be car accident, meteor strike, tsunami, or spontaneous combustion.

Originally Posted by ShimmeringFaerie

Secondly, we can't know that the child who does get the kidney will have a happier or "better" life than this girl. In fact, I would argue that they probably won't. Living until only 10 or 20 means that this girl won't face a lot of the unhappiness and stress that people who live for longer do and since she'll know that she won't live long, she will probably focus on being happy.

I don't even know where or how to start arguing that. It appears you have a pessimistic outlook on life, fine, so do I to a large extent... but ultimately life is whatever you make of it. Suggesting that people would have better lives if they died early... is just ridiculous. Why don't we all kill ourselves at birth to spare ourselves the pain? I'm not even religious or anything, but Jesus Christ...

Originally Posted by ShimmeringFaerie

And thirdly, we don't know that another child getting this kidney would be more beneficial for everyone. The child who does get this kidney could grow up to be a horrible person, a criminal, anything. Or this girl could make a positive difference in a lot of people's lives. [/color]

Again this is a null point, it goes both ways and so cancels out. Either of the kids could turn out to be anything, it purely depends on their upbringing, and to some extent genetics, but the genetics business is a grey area regarding whether or not someone will be "good" or "bad".


I don't like being as rude as I probably sound here, but none of your reasoning makes any sense. I found it difficult to even take your post seriously enough to even bother phrasing my own arguments coherently, so I'm sorry if I don't come across clearly. To be honest I face-palmed at some of the things I read in your post.