Is the road to hell paved with good intentions? Singapore is poised to enter new medical ethics territory with its recent debates on regulated organ trading and euthanasia.

The Human Organs Transplant Act could be amended next year to allow "compensation" to an organ donor. After the high profile case of shopping tycoon Tang Wee Sung who paid $300,000 to an agent for a kidney from an Indonesian seller-donor, the cogs turning Singapore into one pioneering country which condones and regulates organ trading is set in motion.

With regulation, people in need of organs can buy it, those in need of money can sell their organ and organ trade agents would be monitored closely. In the Tang case, Sulaiman Damanik was supposed to have pocketed a mere $23,700 for selling a kidney, meaning that the agent might have kept the remaining lucrative $276,300 after splitting it with his Indonesian and local partners. Regulation would have meant Tang could have gotten his kidney safely, Sulaiman could have gotten more for his troubles and the black market profiteering of illegal middlemen would be contained to a large extent.

The naysayers often use the slippery slope argument against organ trading, citing practical concerns of kidnapping and organ snatchers, proletarian debates on the exploitation of the poor, and philosophical anxieties of the commodification of the human body. However, the poor realistically have less access to the best medical care since it is priced out of their reach anyway, and surrogate mothers then are unacceptable categorically as the human body is fundamentally commercialised medically. With the introduction of regulation, the government could actually take on the moral high ground of equitable sale and distribution of organs.

The signpost on this path leading to the amendment of HOTA was erected months ago when Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan stated that his ministry did not rule out decriminalising organ trading. Only a few weeks ago, the minister again challenged medical attitude norms and hammered the question on the door. The nature of his Wittenberg provocation, whether euthanasia is absolutely unthinkable. If this decision on organ trading is a reliable barometer, regulated euthanasia would be introduced eventually.

Nevertheless, unless there is a high profile case on euthanasia in Singapore, the Health Ministry would probably not put it as a priority to tackle and would take incremental steps towards this direction instead if Khaw has his say. HOTA would come first after public feedback, however token, is sought before a parliamentary debate on the controversy of selling organs. The party whip might even be lifted like in 1969 when the abortion bill was debated.

Moving away from medical ethics to the "progressiveness" of the government, the Health Ministry is going into uncharted grounds rather than burying its head in the sand. Addressing controversy without flinching can only be good.