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Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

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21–30 of 67 posts

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#21
post #3

Why should I care about this person, and how is it relevant to startups, hacking, technology, etc.? "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

Amit Gupta's influence on bone marrow registration will uncertainly save several lives over the next decades. The role of technology and the associated community is an important part of that story.

It's certainly one of the factors in my decision to sign up with the registry.

[http://marrow.org could use the touch of a UX designer, but the signup process is straightforward enough.]

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#22

"But we’re sort of in wait-and-pray mode because historically, only half of South Asians who are tested actually agree to donate." Not only is the chance of finding South Asians to get a DNA test very low, but that chance is further sliced by half because a matched donor can get cold feet. I really hope that those people who were identified as a match come through for Amit (or others in need).

Look, if you sign up, you sign up to actually give marrow if there's a match. Period. Unless you're not healthy enough, there's no excuse for welching on a deal that involves someone's life.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#23
post #19
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?" He is not more important in an objective sense. Most people would agree in an abstract sense that all lives are equally valuable, but would readily save their child rather than another if it came down to it. Why? Because they value the life of their child more than the life of another's child, and there's absolutely not…

In reply to daenz: What makes you say the community is ignoring the faceless sufferers? Registering as a marrow donor isn't exclusive to one person, you could potentially save the life of a stranger decades from now. For the awareness he's raised Amit may potentially be saving many lives besides his own. To me it's incredible that helping one person evokes so much shrieking about how many others that aren't being hel…

> What makes you say the community is ignoring the faceless sufferers?

I've never seen ONE "help so-and-so (who is not from our community) with money/bone marrow/whatever" thread on here. Only when it effects someone in this community does this community give a shit, and you can't deny that. And the irony, as I pointed out before, is that it's going to take someone most likely not from this community to save Amit. I really can't make it any more clear.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#24
post #17
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?" He is not more important in an objective sense. Most people would agree in an abstract sense that all lives are equally valuable, but would readily save their child rather than another if it came down to it. Why? Because they value the life of their child more than the life of another's child, and there's absolutely not…

Anyone else see the irony of a community fighting to save a person's life, while ignoring all the other "faceless" sufferers, when the life that they're fighting for probably depends on the good will of a "faceless", anonymous person? Serious question.

I'm not sure you know what "irony" means.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#25
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring your horrific lack of tact and sensitivity: From http://amitgupta.com/ > In the past... I started Jelly, worked with Seth Godin to start ChangeThis, brought BarCamp to NYC, started a co-op called House 2.0, contributed to a WSJ best-seller with Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki and others, and started a venture-backed company called The Daily Jolt while in college. I enjoy camping.

He actually brings a point I've been wondering since the entire thing started: Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list? Downvote me to oblivion if necessary, but this really is a genuine question which, by the looks of things, has the answer of: His life is more important than everyone else on the transplant list.

In addition to the other answers, raising awareness and getting people to sign up to be bone marrow donors can potentially help a lot more people than just Amit.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#26

"But we’re sort of in wait-and-pray mode because historically, only half of South Asians who are tested actually agree to donate." Not only is the chance of finding South Asians to get a DNA test very low, but that chance is further sliced by half because a matched donor can get cold feet. I really hope that those people who were identified as a match come through for Amit (or others in need).

Look, if you sign up, you sign up to actually give marrow if there's a match. Period. Unless you're not healthy enough, there's no excuse for welching on a deal that involves someone's life.

How wrong it is to flake is irrelevant. You can't really force someone to undergo surgery.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone else see the irony of a community fighting to save a person's life, while ignoring all the other "faceless" sufferers, when the life that they're fighting for probably depends on the good will of a "faceless", anonymous person? Serious question.

I'm not sure you know what "irony" means.

[deleted]

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#28
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, if you sign up, you sign up to actually give marrow if there's a match. Period. Unless you're not healthy enough, there's no excuse for welching on a deal that involves someone's life.

How wrong it is to flake is irrelevant. You can't really force someone to undergo surgery.

It's basically a 6 hours long blood donation. Hardly what most people think as surgery.

I agree you can't force them to go through with it, but the effort needed versus the outcome if successful are not even comparable.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#29
post #3

Why should I care about this person, and how is it relevant to startups, hacking, technology, etc.? "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

Unless you think all the people upvoting don't fall into the good hackers category (and how could you know that if you did think so), that it is so highly upvoted should give you a clue.

Re: Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone else see the irony of a community fighting to save a person's life, while ignoring all the other "faceless" sufferers, when the life that they're fighting for probably depends on the good will of a "faceless", anonymous person? Serious question.

I'm not sure you know what "irony" means.

[deleted]
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