How Amoral We Have Become: Book Reviewer Calls Larry’s Kidney a “Slapstick Comedy”

A little while ago I wrote here at SHS decrying amoral Trade reviews given to a new book called Larry’s Kidney, in which a man and his Cousin Larry go to China for a little biological colonialism to buy the aforementioned Larry a kidney—no doubt obtained from killing a prisoner (perhaps criminal, perhaps political, perhaps Falun Gong). I was disgusted at the outsourcing of ethics and the solipsism of the idea that our lives are worth others being killed over for cash. (For a contrary, and from my perspective right ethical view, see the novel by Dean Koontz, Your Heart Belongs to Me)

Well, now Larry’s Kidney received another favorable—and utterly amoral—book review by Andrew Ervin in the Washington Post. From the review:

The ensuing adventure is the stuff of slapstick comedy, as Rose and Larry navigate the Chinese black market, the dodgy medical establishment and their own relationship. It’s curious and occasionally tense, especially when after all that trouble Larry threatens to call off the operation if it’s going to be too expensive. Though their odyssey was a success in the end, Rose makes the moral of the story clear: “Don’t try to go to China for a kidney. We got the last one.”

Yea, killing prisoners to make big bucks on the organ market: I’m sure the dead person’s family are really yucking it up.