Re: SOC/BIO Re: George Will joins the Bioluddites

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Wed Jan 24 2001 - 22:56:10 MST


At 11:33 PM -0500 1/24/01, John Clark wrote:
>Brian D Williams <talon57@well.com> Wrote:
>
> >Obviously I think raising and harvesting
> > engineered disencephalatic clones is going to be a slightly more
> >difficult proposition than planting weed seeds in dirt.
>
>Why would hiding a few pounds worth of synthetic organs be more difficult than
>hiding thousands of tons of marijuana?

Because a bale of marijuana can be stored under any conditions.
Synthetic organs need to be kept in a sterile, temperature-controlled
environment.

>Why would the demand for synthetic organs be less than the demand
>for marijuana?

More people get high than replace organs. A person can smoke
multiple joints per day, but will not replace multiple organs per day.

> Why would the profits from the illicit organ trade be less than
>that of the illicit drug trade?

Higher cost of storage and transport, lower volume of demand. The
price would be higher, so profit would be debatable.

> Why would you find few people willing to engage in such a risky but
>enormously profitable enterprise when many thousand take similar
>risks in the drug trade?

Growing plants is low-tech. Growing organs is high-tech. It takes a
higher caliber intellect to grow organs. Statistically, there are
less people of this intellect. Highly skilled people in this field
could probably get rich with less risky jobs in bioengineering.

-- 
Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>


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