I'll Give You All I've Got To Give

A doctor who donated one of his kidneys to save his wife's life and "turn the marriage around" has only half succeeded: in 2005, four years after the transplant, the wife filed for divorce. Accordingly, along with his share of the furniture, albums and children, the donor wants back the value of his kidney, which he estimates at one and a half million dollars. Experts on medical ethics say his case is "somewhere between impossible and completely impossible", and that monetary value cannot be attached to an organ in the way that it can be attached to, say, a dialysis machine or a life-saving drug. Still, with the Righteous Army bombing schools in Gaza, and Britain's foreign-owned energy companies exporting gas from the UK, thus benefiting the vulnerable by driving prices up in the middle of a harsh winter, it's reasuring to see, elsewhere in the free market, the natural generosity of the human spirit so movingly displayed.