1: Posted by: Red Wolf | July 6, 2004 10:18 AM

ABC News just ran the story about the Jesus Christians. They may well be be based in Australia, but the head sherrang has a definite Yank accent.

2: Posted by: katherine | July 12, 2004 1:30 PM

i'm one of those religious nuts who gave a kidney to a friend of mine who was spending literally half of his life (and waking hours) in hospital, tied to a machine which would perform some of his vital bodily processes for him. Since the operation he can now go away for two days in a row..eat bananas (may not be a big deal for some, but when eating one of your fave foods may cause your body to start destroying itself..it is a HUGE treat to be able to eat them again without fear of being hospitalised..wouldn't you say?), drink more than 800 mls of fluid a day without risk of having a heart attack...AND he can now piss properly! (another thing most of us take for granted!) Is helping someone be able to live a fuller life, such a bad thing? I'm not saying this to make myself look good, but to challenge the permeating idea that me and my other friends who've donated our kidneys, have done something evil, or crazy. Donating your kidney is legal in some countries, the US most notably, yet for some reason it is illegal in the UK and Australia. WHY? Only because the authorities have not figured out a way to profit from it. The US doesn't have the great public health system that we have in the UK or Australia...so they can make money from people donating, whereas they can't in Australia. It's quite simply GREED which is keeping so many people languishing on hospital waiting lists. And they paint people who challenge their greed as being the freaks, to try and stop their motives from being examined. Are YOU going to be fleeced by the media too, or look for the truth behind the lies?

3: Posted by: Feòrag | July 12, 2004 2:05 PM

Are you a lying religious nut, like the ones described, or merely an illiterate one? Let's look again at the way the article describes the relevant Australian legislation: "kidney donations are not allowed for anyone apart from family members, friends or those with an emotional connection" (emphasis mine). So, you are either lying about the person being a friend (the subject of the article) which would explain why you are so defensive, or simply incapable of reading and comprehending the article which was specifically about liars. Given that you write like someone in their early teens, and the general literacy level of religious nuts is pretty low, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the latter.

4: Posted by: Red Wolf | July 13, 2004 4:22 AM

The reason that the Australian government does not allow people who are neither family, friends or emotionally connected is to stop the protential trade in black market body parts that is rife in places like India. Katherine seems to delight in taking a high and mighty stance on government greed and misses that the government may be protecting her from having wealthy individuals buy or steal her body parts without her consent.

The only thing Katherine managed to get right was to label herself a nut, the self-professed claim of not saying this to make myself look good smells highly of gloat.

5: Posted by: kat | July 16, 2004 11:23 AM

Feorag..why would I write if I WASN'T one of the people who had lied? As opposed to being defensive, I was trying to emphasise some of the factors as to WHY I lied..although I can see that I didn't do a very good job of that. But it's a matter of honesty and loyalty to whom? Am I going to be honest to what my spirit and my conscience tell me, or am I going to be loyal to a system (&/or it's rules) that tell me it's against the law to help somebody? Since my conscience is about the only thing I can call my own, I'd like to keep it as intact as possible - even if it means I get in trouble with the law. Following your conscience on something shouldn't be confined only to situations where you have the support of (lots of) other people (like is the case with the majority of people who participate in anti-war demos etc.)

There are laws within society which I think can be helpful for a smoother running of things (like most road rules)..but when the subject is more of a 'moral' or subjective issue I think things are not so black or white.

Red Wolf...I've spoken with quite a few people within the health system ( some of the same people who quizzed me over why I wanted to donate) who are campaigning for the government to allow altruistic donations, and they say that those in charge just don't see regulating a change to the laws as important enough to put on the agenda. You missed the point though. If the government would regulate altruistic donations they wouldn't HAVE to worry that there was anything unethical going on.

6: Posted by: Feòrag | July 16, 2004 4:21 PM

So, how do we know that you didn't lie about the state of your health? After all, four people have died recently from rabies contracted via transplants. There are all sorts of diseases which could be communicated via such a transplant, and we can't really trust a liar to tell the truth.

And why did you lie here, in your initial comment, about the recipient being a good friend, at the same time as saying you broke the law? One of these two statements is a lie. And because you are a liar, a deliberate liar, I don't believe that any of your 'factors' are genuine.

Here in Britain, the problem is not enough people opting to let others use their bits and pieces when they have finished with them. The planned solution is to change the law, so that you have to opt out of being an organ donor. After all, it's not as if you need them once you're dead.