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Amit Gupta Could Have Marrow Transplant by End of Year

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

#31

Post by jstn »

daenz wrote: post #23
jstn wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I just don't understand responding to someone helping someone else by demonizing them for the all people they're not helping. Amit is a member of our community, he's raised awareness for an important issue, what's the problem here?

And I disagree, the whole point of this drive is that the magic donor most likely will be someone mobilized by this community since there are so few potential matches as it currently stands.

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

#32

Post by mikeash »

ineedtosleep wrote: post #10
ineedtosleep wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 reply to _delirium: Right. I guess the thing that bothers me about the entire thing is that this is done at such a bigger scale than other similar requests, especially from the past. Requesting help from a small group, like family is one thing, but requesting help from the internet doesn't settle right for some reason.

The help they requested will go to help an entire ethnic group of people, not just one person. This effectively a massive charity operation using an individual story as a hook. I don't understand how anyone could possibly criticize this as being selfish.

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

#33

Post by patio11 »

You guys may be interested in Flynn vs. Holder, which is a court case attempting to strike down the federal prohibition on selling bone marrow.

If you could buy and sell bone marrow, all parties agree that that would happen more frequently than bone marrow donation. The side that believes that would be bad won.

(A brief sketch of the concern: if you allow money into the equation, either a) people who won the marrow lottery could extort money from folks who are dying or b) poor people would be hooked up to machines and have their vital juices sucked out so that rich people could live. A brief sketch of the argument for allowing bone marrow sales: the present law guarantees persistent market undersupply of bone marrow, which, with certainty, kills people.)

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

#34

Post by learc83 »

patio11 wrote: post #33

You guys may be interested in Flynn vs. Holder, which is a court case attempting to strike down the federal prohibition on selling bone marrow. If you could buy and sell bone marrow, all parties agree that that would happen more frequently than bone marrow donation. The side that believes that would be bad won. (A brief sketch of the concern: if you allow money into the equation, either a) people who won the marrow l…

The only way to tell what will happen is to run a trial. That way we can stop conjecturing, and see what actually happens. My guess is it would work pretty well.

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

#35

Post by blhack »

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5
SandB0x wrote: 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.

He isn't, it just so happens that he is a member of our community.

I'd bet that your friends, family, and coworkers take a bit of an interest in your personal life. Amit's friends and coworkers just happen to be a very very large group.

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

#36

Post by blhack »

patio11 wrote: post #33

You guys may be interested in Flynn vs. Holder, which is a court case attempting to strike down the federal prohibition on selling bone marrow. If you could buy and sell bone marrow, all parties agree that that would happen more frequently than bone marrow donation. The side that believes that would be bad won. (A brief sketch of the concern: if you allow money into the equation, either a) people who won the marrow l…

It's a moral minefield. When people get desperate for money, they're willing to do things that they might later regret. This is why things like loan sharks tend to be illegal (and why, one could argue, auto title loans and the like should be as well. In that case it's a matter of collective versus individual intelligence. Collectively, an auto title loan service is far more intelligent than an individual, and they are thus able to be predatory in their lending practices [to great success]).

I'm not equating selling your organs with loan sharking, but I believe it illustrates my point.

(Donating your organs to get yourself out of extreme financial hardship could be considered a form of duress. This is one of the classic arguments against prostitution.)

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

#37

Post by maxharris »

patio11 wrote: post #33

You guys may be interested in Flynn vs. Holder, which is a court case attempting to strike down the federal prohibition on selling bone marrow. If you could buy and sell bone marrow, all parties agree that that would happen more frequently than bone marrow donation. The side that believes that would be bad won. (A brief sketch of the concern: if you allow money into the equation, either a) people who won the marrow l…

As you've pointed out, the alternative for those who need these cells (but can't get them) is death. I agree completely.

But the argument for the other side isn't sound. Poor people (with the right haplotype at the right time) could become quite rich if we don't try to interfere with bone marrow sales. Do you know what I'd pay for cells that would save my life if I needed them? Quite a lot more than I paid for my car.

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

#38

Post by uptown »

patio11 wrote: post #33

You guys may be interested in Flynn vs. Holder, which is a court case attempting to strike down the federal prohibition on selling bone marrow. If you could buy and sell bone marrow, all parties agree that that would happen more frequently than bone marrow donation. The side that believes that would be bad won. (A brief sketch of the concern: if you allow money into the equation, either a) people who won the marrow l…

I'll admit I haven't read the case you references, but once you build a financial marketplace around something, it will get controlled, manipulated and exploited. Why stop at bone marrow? Everybody's got a couple kidneys ... why not let people sell one? What about the donors who regularly give blood donations today? Would they stop doing so without being paid? I believe it's an oversimplification to just say that the current system kills people by design and that adding money will make it operate more effectively.

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

#39

Post by jpulgarin »

tdoggette wrote: post #22
callmevlad wrote: post #18

"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.

You can avert an infant death for $1000.

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

#40

Post by bermanoid »

ineedtosleep wrote: post #5
SandB0x wrote: 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.

Why is he somehow more "important" than all the other people on the bone marrow transplant list?

Does it matter? His situation is bringing attention to this, and getting more people to add themselves to the registry. Whether or not he is personally saved, it's likely that several other matches will be made as a result, so I'd say it's a good thing overall.

By my understanding, this isn't a matter of supply and demand, or him trying to "jump the line" by making a direct appeal to people - it's a matter of sheer volume, it's relatively difficult to find donors for anyone that match well, so having more people in the system is a good thing for everyone.

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