Cash Compensations for Kidneys? - Let's Bypass Exploitation-of-the-Poor Argument and Here's What I Know

There are progressive organizations pushing for non-cash incentives, such as tax credits, for an individual to provide a kidney to an anonymous someone who needs it. As is well-known, there is a shortage of kidneys available for transplant. The usual wait time is over four years. Meanwhile those who can't hang on could die. 

Surveys show that most oppose transactions involving cash payments. 

Among the common arguments against ponying up cash or establishing a private market for kidney sales is this: It would exploit those in financial distress. Obviously, the millionaires at Wall Street firms such as JPMorgan Chase and Appolo wouldn't be bellying up for that kind of supplement to their income.

But any sense of exploitation is not what I encountered more than two decades ago. The force field was one of human beings trying to solve a problem. I was among them.

 

Post-9/11, a number of sectors, including mine, collapsed. As a result assignments for my boutique dried up. Like many boomers who had become used to affluence I had been living beyond my means. So I was not only without a source of income from self-employment but also was in debt.

On a professional blog I had launched (since deleted because I have shifted career paths) I put out there the hypothetical: Suppose for people like myself it was legal and lucrative to sell a kidney? My fantasy was six-figures. 

Since blogging had been a new medium back then, boy, did I get a response. I had struck a nerve.

For myself and to those who contacted me by phone and email nonono this was certainly not exploitation. This made good financial common sense. 

The topic proved hot so I kept the digital conversation going. In addition, I developed a sense of  purpose helping others sort out their pile-on of difficulties. Now I do that professionally full-time as an intuitive coach and tarot reader.

All of us admitted regret over mistakes we had made which put us in our current pickle. I listened to plenty of what-ifs. I shared my own soul-wrenching confessions. The way back was going to be filled with brutal humility.

In a prototype of an e-book I described that journey from let-the-good-times-roll to questioning every assumption I had about "making it." It had had more than a million downloads and here you can read it.

I did get back, actually twice. The digital communications boutique I successfully had set up in 2006 got hit with glut and again I had to scramble. Only this time, with some lessons learned, there was no debt. 

Both times re-entry would have been somewhat easier if those like us in transition had the option to sell a kidney. At the Zen Cochise Center, Bisbee, Arizona, Master Teacher Hye Mu (Barry Briggs) devotes each meditation practice to human beings in transition. Transition is tough, not an adventure.

Much older now and on a cocktail of medications to control hypertension there's no longer a kidney-sale option for me. But for those I had connected with two decades ago I hope that will be available to them someday. Like I said, it's part of a solution. 

Progressive law firms such as Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul, Weiss can pitch this policy measure to the Harris-Walz ticket. Along the way it can also save so many lives. Justice will finally be served.

In business and life you usually have only one shot at whatever. Up the odds of success with Jane Genova. I am an intuitive coach, tarot reader and content-creator. Complimentary consultation (please text/phone 203-468-8579 or email janegenova374@gmail.com)