10 Unethical Things You Can Legally Buy

Here is a list of 10 Unethical Things You Can Legally Buy.

01. Positive pregnancy tests

Yes, people are selling positive pregnancy tests on Craigslist. I cannot think of any legitimate use. Maybe sometimes they are used for pranks, but most of the time they’re used to collect abortion money. My neighbor sold positive tests during each of her pregnancies to women who lied about being pregnant in order to collect abortion money. It was pretty brilliant, honestly. Women would stop by her house, hand her twenty dollars and a fresh pregnancy test, and she, in turn, would give them a positive pregnancy test. These women then go to their lover or whoever, show them the test, and the men would hand the women cash to “take care of it”, as she put it. So for an investment of thirty to forty dollars, these women would gross about five hundred to a thousand dollars a test depending on how far along she claims to be (abortion prices are based upon how far into the pregnancy the woman is).

02. Life insurance on someone else

You can buy life insurance on someone else. There was a guy who pretty much used to hang out at motorcycle dealership and propose to people to pay for upgrades or stuff like that if they let him get life insurance on them. Since enough people kill themself on motorcycle, he became rich. You see to take a life insurance, you got to have “Insurable Interest” in that person, i.e. your finances should adversely affect in the event of their death. So purchasing the upgrades on the bike counts as insurable interest.

A lot of companies take insurances on their CEOs and other executives as a hedge against something bad happening to them. Also engineers get insured by employers often, too. Banks take them out on people with large loans, as well. Basically anyone who could lose money by your death can insure your life.

There is also this case of a lawyer who found and exploited a loophole that did away with insurable interest. He made millions on his clients and is now in prison.

03. Shoot a rocket launcher at a cow

For $350 in Cambodia they let you shoot a rocket launcher at a cow. At the old American bases with surplus left over from the war, for $350 you can shoot any of the guns and for the extra $50 you get to rocket the cow.

04. Exotic/invasive/endangered Species of plants and animals

You can legally buy endangered species like Bluefin Tuna and Rosewood. It is often legal to buy and sell endangered species of plants through the mail. Take, for example, the rare Hawaiian palm tree Pritchardia remota, one of several species collectively known as lou’lu. The tree, like many in its genus, is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), but right now there are several for sale on eBay. If those sellers have the right permit, then their sales are both legal and within the goals and scopes of the Endangered Species Act. A study of online plant sales has found that many if not most sellers appear to lack this essential permit.

There was a recent public outrage on the relocation of an endangered giant salamander in China. But if they didn’t do it, it would have likely been killed to be eaten as a delicacy. In China they eat everything that moves. If it’s a creature that tastes bad, they market it as traditional, medicinal, or good for your chi. If it’s rare, endangered, or requires an animal to be tortured (like bear bile) it’s a status symbol.

Another unethical product comes to my mind that is destroying endangered species. Palm oil. Palm oil plantations are okay. Indonesian ones in particular, are bad. Palm oil is grown around the world, and it is fueling deforestation pretty much everywhere. There are an estimated 6,700 Sumatran orangutans, primarily in the dense rainforests on the north of the island. But their numbers have been severely depleted by forest clearing, largely for palm oil plantations. This has led to apes wandering on to newly established farms, where they are regularly beaten, tortured and killed. About a year ago, a Palm Oil Company was fined for burning only place on earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos, & orangutans live together in the wild in Indonesia. They were guilty of illegally burning large swathes of Sumatran Forest to plant Palm forest.

05. Puppy mill puppies

Large pet stores at the mall usually buy from mass breeders, spinning huge profit. People usually think that adopting a puppy mill dog is a good thing because you’re saving a dog from a bad environment and giving it a good home. What they don’t consider is that it is putting money in bad people’s pockets. These mills are large-scale breeding operations where dogs are kept solely as livestock, the product being puppies which are then sold direct over the internet, in pet stores, in newspapers, etc. They tend to have limited veterinary care, no interaction with the dogs, lots of inbreeding which produces genetic issues, etc.

If you want a new dog, do your research. Either go to a shelter/rescue and adopt, or find a reputable breeder if you know what breed you want. A good breeder will have a wait list, awards from showing/working, and proper health documentation. Be very wary of the Internet and any third party suppliers (pet stores, puppyfinder, etc). If you do decide to purchase from a backyard breeder or are ever skeptical of anything, ask questions. If something seems shady then just leave, there’s dozens of other places to find a dog and you won’t have the risk of getting an unhealthy dog or supporting a mill.

06. Fake winning scratch off tickets

Those are seriously the cruelest thing ever. I love nothing more than a good prank, but those aren’t even funny, just cruel to whoever receives them. I’ve seen videos where someone broke down crying thinking they won just to be told it was a joke.

07. Flamethrower

There are a lot of places offline and online where you can buy a flamethrower. Despite the potential dangers of such a device, the technology is legal and free to use across most of the US. There are generally no restrictions on flamethrower ownership in the United States. In California people must get a license to use flamethrowers, and unlicensed possession of ‘any non-stationary and transportable device designed or intended to emit or propel a burning stream of combustible or flammable liquid a distance of at least 10ft’ is punishable with jail or a fine of up to $10,000.

08. White Phosphorus

White Phosphorus is commonly used in chemical warfare. It basically is a solid that produces smoke after reacting with oxygen that burns/melts your skin. It is restricted by the Geneva Convention though. You can still use it as a smoke screen legally. Here is a video which demonstrates why it is so dangerous.

Both the white and the red allotropes of phosphorus are basically not sold anymore, although they were readily available until very recently when some m*rons used red phosphorus in the preparation of metamphetamine. Shortly thereafter, the DEA made it a listed and prohibited compound. You can still purchase red phosphorus under special license, but you’d have to have a pretty good research reason for having it. It is possible to convert it to the highly poisonous and pyrophoric white allotrope, but you need special equipment.

09. Sharkfin soup (still legal in a lot of places)

Each year, millions of sharks are hunted, their fins sliced off, and then thrown back into the ocean — dead or dying. “Finning” is done to make dishes such as shark fin soup, which may be served by Chinese restaurants and during Lunar New Year celebrations, weddings, and other celebratory events.

Consuming shark fin soup is cruel and unnecessary. And not only does shark fin have little taste, it can contain high levels of mercury.

Most fins for soup are obtained by the brutal practice of “finning,” which is carried out in all the world’s oceans. Sharks are caught and hauled out of the water. Their fins and sometimes their tails are sliced off, and the fish are thrown back into the ocean. Many of them are still alive. They cannot swim without fins, so they helplessly sink into the water to the ocean bottom, to die slowly or be eaten by predators. It is estimated that 73 million sharks are killed each year in this fashion.

Sharks are apex predators, situated at the top of the food chain. When they disappear, the prey they would have eaten become more numerous. The species these secondary predators eat are then hard hit; it has been observed that populations of such tertiary prey species as scallops, clams, and spiny lobsters were ravaged after the numbers of local sharks diminished drastically. This is the situation from the culinary consumer’s point of view. From the marine biologist’s point of view it is a grim picture of a possible ecological collapse. One thing has been learned from similar situations: there will be a domino effect but it is not easy to predict what will fall.

The good news is Asia is turning tide against shark fin soup. China’s Communist Party vowed to phase out shark fin soup from official functions. Taiwan, the fourth-largest shark fin market, outlawed fishermen from sawing off shark fins and dumping the carcass overboard. The same rule applies to boatmen in EU waters.

10. Human Leather

You can buy products made from human skin legally online. According to the site,

Is this illegal?

Not at all. However, this is an expensive business, as the raw material is not cheap to produce or process, plus there is official hindrance along the way. We value our donors and we reward their beneficiaries and next of kin very handsomely. In fact, we have had to turn away some potential donors, as we can accept only the highest quality human skin. We cannot give you the source of our raw product, we apologize.

There are even books out there that are bound in human skin.