Organ sales and public sector salaries revisited

In recent weeks, there have been much public discussion & debate revolving the issue of whether organ sales should be legalised in Singapore, with there being supporters on both sides of the argument.

On one side, one argument used by those supporting the legalisation of organ sales in Singapore is that, considering the limited supply of altruistic organ donors and high demand for organs by patients suffering from some form of organ failure, by legalising organ sales, supply of organs will increase and thereby allowing more lives to be saved.

And on the other side, there are those who, while acknowledging that monetary incentives could perhaps indeed increase the supply of organs, argue that having such monetary incentives could also reduce organ supply through "crowding out" altruistic donors.

Also, they worry that by offering monetary incentives to those giving up their organs for transplants, societal morality may be negatively impacted, in that, to quote Miss Lydia Lim, people's inner moral compasses may be so disarmed by monetary incentives "that the only reason to either perform or refrain from an activity is the price tag attached to such behaviour". Such sentiments are expressed in this opinion piece in yesterday's Straits Times (from which the quote above was gotten from) and this opinion piece in today's 《联合早报》/"Lianhe Zaobao".

Well, perhaps it is just me but I cannot help but notice certain parallels between the debate over whether to legalise organ sales in Singapore and another public debate that occurred early last year -- the debate over providing high salaries to those working in the public sector.

Just as how proponents of organ sales legalisation arguing that legalising organ sales would increase organ supply to meet the high demand for organs, proponents of providing high salaries to those working in the public sector have also argued that by providing high public sector salaries, more competent and talented individuals would be attracted to work in the public sector, bearing in mind the increasingly fierce competition for talent across the world.

Similarly, there were those who argued that by offering high public sector salaries, society's view towards public service would be distorted.

Personally, while I can appreciate the logic behind offering high public sector salaries to attract talent, I, as I have argued in an earlier blog post of mine, remain concerned about the negative implications that this may have.

Just think about it, just as how offering monetary incentives to people giving up their organs may "crowd out" altruistic organ donors, high public sector salaries could also, while attracting talent, deter those who sincerely desire to dedicate themselves to public service from joining public service as they have no wish to be tainted with the label of being in the public service just for the money.

In addition, as time passes, people may perhaps start to perceive public service as not being a vocation and/or higher calling but as just another avenue through which people can earn high salaries.

Furthermore, perhaps just as how other means of attracting talented individuals to work in the public sector should be found and implemented, other means of inducing more people to donate their organs voluntarily should be looked at first before resorting to the offering of monetary incentives.

In the end, if you all can pardon the Bible-quoting free thinker that I am, perhaps even as we provide monetary incentives to induce people to behave positively, we should think about this verse from the Gospel of Matthew: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).