Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Doofus Of The Day #140


Today's Doofus is Dr. Richard Batista of New York. He's apparently demanding that his estranged wife pay him $1.5 million for the kidney he donated to her in 2001.

A few questions for Dr. Batista:


  • If you didn't put a price on your kidney when you donated it, how have you arrived at a valuation all these years later?
  • If you gave it freely and without coercion, that qualifies as a donation, as far as I'm aware of the law. How can you charge for a donation ex post facto without a prior agreement?
  • What about depreciation of the organ over the intervening years? Surely its value today must be diminished by wear and tear (including the birth of another child to the couple after its donation)?
  • If one of your kidneys is worth $1.5 million, can one extrapolate from this to calculate your whole-body net worth? And can your estranged wife use the latter figure as a basis on which to calculate the monthly or annual maintenance you should pay her?
  • What happens if your estranged wife should suffer kidney failure in future years? Can she sue you for a refund and/or damages, on the grounds of defective merchandise?


Methinks the good Doctor hasn't thought this one all the way through!



Peter

5 comments:

Justin Buist said...

It's quite simple.

In marriage the two become one. He didn't really transfer the kidney. She did by walking away from the marriage. I assume it's her that wants the divorce, didn't check the link.

He quite clearly came into the marriage with ownership of that kidney. She's the one taking it out of the marriage.

Pay up, I say! :)

Dustin said...

You know, as bizarre and twisted (and wrong) as this claim is, all of those things also could be twisted and said about the marriage itself, and whatever she's asking for out of it.

Anonymous said...

And I think you didn't hear the whole story. After giving her the kidney, and while providing her with the lifestyle that a surgeon's income can, she had an affair, which was the cause of the divorce. I think the Doctor's right.

Anonymous said...

The poor fellow certainly comes out looking like a fool but, I think that most of us can understand how he feels. When a man shows the ultimate expression of love for his wife by literally giving her a part of himself only to have her betray and humiliate him we can understand his pain. That said, all he is doing now is making himself a object of ridicule. Poor bas***d.

Anonymous said...

That is, his wife had an affair, ACCORDING TO THE DOCTOR: we haven't heard HER side of things. I figure he's just doing all this as harassment --- which makes me wonder what kind of husband HE was?!?