The ninth chapter of Dr. Sigrid Fry-Revere's recently published book The Kidney Sellers is entitled "Too Poor to Pay". This book section documents the author's experiences in Kermanshah, an agricultural city in western Iran approximately 100 miles from the Iran-Iraq border. Kermanshah is not a city I shall be visiting anytime soon.
The highlights of this chapter include the following: an interesting Iranian law banning vehicles with sunroofs, a Naples leprosy anecdote, a less-than-fun teenage party, the limitations of Dr. Zargooshi's research (the primary Iranian physician critic of the compensated organ donation system), the bizarre kidney procurement exam at Imam Reza Hospital, the lack of medical resources in Kermanshah, an interview with a rare insightful Iranian (apparently as rare as an insightful American), an Iranian holy day, an interview with an Iranian donor worried about her own "greed", and the valiant Kermanshah Anjoman.
The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger was perturbed by two sections of chapter 9, however. In the "A Limited Perspective" subsection of the chapter, in which Dr. Zargooshi's research is critiqued, Dr. Fry-Revere basically agrees with his research but excuses his negative findings by stating that his research "interviews were carried out in the early 1990s when the Iranian government's regulation of compensated-kidney donation was in its infancy." Thus, she basically claims that Dr. Zargooshi's research reported a market failure phenomena that has since resolved via increased Iranian State regulation. Uh, I don't think so. An alternative theory that does not posit market failure is that Dr. Zargooshi's research is fatally flawed, which, based on the brief info the author provides about his research and conclusions, is much more likely to be true than the alleged market failure.
The second lowlight of the chapter is the author's negative reaction to the standard paraphernalia of an Iranian holy day in the "Escape to Mt. Kooh-e-Sefid" subsection of the chapter. "Most people, including our driver and Dr. Bastani, took it all in stride, but for a Westerner like myself, who equates flags at half staff with death and black flags with anarchy, the sight was unsettling." Unsettling? A Westerner like myself? All true libertarians, Western or Eastern or Northern or Southern, are anarchists, dammit! You're killing me, Sigrid. I so want to believe you are a libertarian, but then you say such … silly … things.
LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger homework: Review Dr. Zargooshi's published articles concerning the Iranian compensated-kidney donation system.
The highlights of this chapter include the following: an interesting Iranian law banning vehicles with sunroofs, a Naples leprosy anecdote, a less-than-fun teenage party, the limitations of Dr. Zargooshi's research (the primary Iranian physician critic of the compensated organ donation system), the bizarre kidney procurement exam at Imam Reza Hospital, the lack of medical resources in Kermanshah, an interview with a rare insightful Iranian (apparently as rare as an insightful American), an Iranian holy day, an interview with an Iranian donor worried about her own "greed", and the valiant Kermanshah Anjoman.
The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger was perturbed by two sections of chapter 9, however. In the "A Limited Perspective" subsection of the chapter, in which Dr. Zargooshi's research is critiqued, Dr. Fry-Revere basically agrees with his research but excuses his negative findings by stating that his research "interviews were carried out in the early 1990s when the Iranian government's regulation of compensated-kidney donation was in its infancy." Thus, she basically claims that Dr. Zargooshi's research reported a market failure phenomena that has since resolved via increased Iranian State regulation. Uh, I don't think so. An alternative theory that does not posit market failure is that Dr. Zargooshi's research is fatally flawed, which, based on the brief info the author provides about his research and conclusions, is much more likely to be true than the alleged market failure.
The second lowlight of the chapter is the author's negative reaction to the standard paraphernalia of an Iranian holy day in the "Escape to Mt. Kooh-e-Sefid" subsection of the chapter. "Most people, including our driver and Dr. Bastani, took it all in stride, but for a Westerner like myself, who equates flags at half staff with death and black flags with anarchy, the sight was unsettling." Unsettling? A Westerner like myself? All true libertarians, Western or Eastern or Northern or Southern, are anarchists, dammit! You're killing me, Sigrid. I so want to believe you are a libertarian, but then you say such … silly … things.
LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger homework: Review Dr. Zargooshi's published articles concerning the Iranian compensated-kidney donation system.
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