Why Do Pro-Lifers Have Two Kidneys?

Bob Runs the Numbers, Episode 9

They didn’t ask for it. They probably don’t want it. But still. I’ve got some advice for my pro-life friends.

A Way To Be Pro-Life Using Your Own Actions

If you’re so worried about pregnant strangers’ choices impacting innocent lives, why not worry about the person you know best: the person who shows up in your mirror every morning? Chances are you’re not being adequately pro-life, and before you get all up in government regulations and infringing the privacy of other people there’s a terrific way that you can prove your own pro-life bona fides.

You’ve Got an Extra Kidney After All

There are roughly a hundred thousand Americans waiting for a kidney. These innocent people’s lives are in danger — the supply of donated kidneys from both deceased donors and living donors is not adequate to keep all of them alive. Over four thousand people per year die while waiting for a kidney.

Chances are, you have two healthy kidneys. Chances are, one of those hundred thousand people waiting for a kidney could use yours. If that person could use a kidney you are refusing to donate, you are, in effect, aborting a living person at this very moment.

You can sign up to be an organ donor, or learn about donating a kidney.

I’m not trying to guilt anyone into undergoing surgery, or risking their own health to help a stranger. I’m certainly not advocating that the government should dictate that anyone with two healthy kidneys must absorb the risk and cost of donating one of them.

(Because there is a risk. The kidney donor surgery mortality rate is about 7 per 100,000 successful kidney donations. As a point of comparison, in 2020 American maternal mortality rate was 23.8 per 100,000 live births, so kidney donation is roughly one-third as dangerous as childbirth.)

But we should be very clear: if you’re claiming to be pro-life, there are concrete things you can do today that are less invasive and more effective than government restrictions on abortion.

How to Be Pro-Life and Not a Hypocrite

Once pro-lifers have voluntarily donated enough kidneys to eliminate the kidney waiting list, that’s when we can have a hypocrisy-free conversation about what pro-life means when it comes to escalating to government intrusions.

But for now: if you’re a pro-lifer walking around with two healthy kidneys then you can shut the fuck up about how other people need to uphold your “pro-life” values.