It took me a long time to digest the fact that yes, Niven is serious:
Among the group's approximately 24 members is Larry Niven, the bestselling and award-winning author of such books as "Ringworld" and "Lucifer's Hammer," which he co-wrote with SIGMA member Jerry Pournelle.
Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.
"The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren't going to pay for anything anyway," Niven said.
"Do you know how politically incorrect you are?" Pournelle asked.
"I know it may not be possible to use this solution, but it does work," Niven replied.
The charitable response is, um, that he's factually incorrect (the best information I have seen suggests illegal immigrants both use emergency rooms at a much lower rate than is commonly believed and that illegal immigrants are a net gain on the economy) - and that he should probably be concerned with all those white citizens who are using emergency rooms because they can't get medical care any other way.
But I digress. The less than charitable response, or at least my less than charitable response is this:
Asshole.
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