I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: Transplant Discussion => Topic started by: okarol on March 09, 2010, 09:56:27 AM
-
Is Someone Buying or Selling a Kidney?
Are you seeking an organ donor and you've been contacted by somebody trying to sell an organ?
Are you a potential donor who has been offered money to buy an organ?
If so, please send us a message with the IHD user ID of the person who has contacted you about this illegal action or if it's an email please forward it to admin@ihatedialysis.com. We'll do what we can to notify legal authorities and to block this person from using the IHD forum again. While we can't guarantee we can stop people like this, we'll do what we can to keep you from being associated with illegal activities like buying and selling organs.
Please note:
From the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, as amended:
Title 42 - The Public Health and Welfare
Chapter 6A - Public Health Services
Subchapter II - General Powers and Duties
Part H - Organ Transplants
Sec. 274e. Prohibition of organ purchases
(a) Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce.
(b) Penalties
Any person who violates subsection (a) of this section shall be fined not more than $50,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(c) Definitions
For purposes of subsection (a) of this section:
(1) The term "human organ" means the human (including fetal) kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, bone marrow, cornea, eye, bone, and skin or any subpart thereof and any other human organ (or any subpart thereof, including that derived from a fetus) specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services by regulation.
(2) The term "valuable consideration" does not include the reasonable payments associated with the removal, transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, and storage of a human organ or the expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.
(3) The term "interstate commerce" has the meaning prescribed for it by section 321(b) of title 21.
okarol/admin
-
No one has offered to sell me a kidney!
:(
-
No one has offered to sell me a kidney!
:(
:oops; Well don't try selling any of yours either! :rofl;
-
But mine were owned by a little old lady who only used them to drive to church on Sunday. :oops; That is my car.
-
I got one a few years ago from soneone supposedly offering to hook me up with the Philipinnes(I think) for $70k or something. I didn't respond or take it very seriously. Will definitely keep it in mind if I get something in the future.
-
But mine were owned by a little old lady who only used them to drive to church on Sunday. :oops; That is my car.
My car broke down and I had to get a new transmission. Out the door it cost me over 3 grand. When I paid the dealership for the repair, I said, "I am going to have to sell a kidney to pay for this". Me and my wife broke out laughing. The lady behind the desk looked rather miffed about it. I hope she doesn't know or have someone in kidney failure.
Oh well, just my sick sense of humor.
-
I got one a few years ago from soneone supposedly offering to hook me up with the Philipinnes(I think) for $70k or something. I didn't respond or take it very seriously. Will definitely keep it in mind if I get something in the future.
Sounds like mitch the organ broker. I think he's in jail now.
-
I had a message like this last week, but I already deleted it. If I get another one, I'll forward it. I'm not 100% sure it came from IHD though. It came to my hotmail account, not to my IHD email. This is the only kidney message board I hang out in, so I assumed someone got my email address from my profile here.
-
Take it easy for buying and selling kidneys. If more than half of patients do buying, I would get my kidney very soon. So we, patients on the waiting list, are benefiting from this. Whether this law itself is moral or not is debable. This law is making more patients die each day.
-
Take it easy for buying and selling kidneys. If more than half of patients do buying, I would get my kidney very soon. So we, patients on the waiting list, are benefiting from this. Whether this law itself is moral or not is debable. This law is making more patients die each day.
My wife is Filipino and it would have been very easy to by a kidney with my connections to the Phillipines which I would never do. I find it absolutely reprehensible that renal disease is now becoming an excuse for a new colonial behavior in the western world. This is most especially true when we consider that daily dialysis has equal survival to cadaveric transplant. The only manner in which to keep the facade of morality of selling organs is to ignore that proven fact. I will live or die with my renal disease but I will not enslave another human being by virtue of the wealth I have to escape it. Anyone that spends even a modicum of time on the plight of the poor that become organ vendors in Pakistan and other parts of the world would not view it as anything but an evil act of greed upon them by merchants treating them as a commodity. DSEN has many posts discussing the moral and ethical and medical reasons why this should never be allowed in this nation.
http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/08/most-iranian-pa.html
I applaud IHD and Okarol for her stand to maintain the standards of IHD.
-
I will live or die with my renal disease but I will not enslave another human being by virtue of the wealth I have to escape it.
This statement has a hidden assumption that living donation is unsafe. If this were true, we should not have living donation at all.
-
I will live or die with my renal disease but I will not enslave another human being by virtue of the wealth I have to escape it.
This statement has a hidden assumption that living donation is unsafe. If this were true, we should not have living donation at all.
To me it means that we should not take advantage of another human just because we can afford to pay for their organ. (I think.)
And living donation is certainly a risk, the important thing is that the donor has full knowledge and informed consent of those risks.
Far greater minds than mine have debated the issue of selling/buying kidneys and I imagine the discussion will continue - hopefully with the best outcome for every one.
-
I will live or die with my renal disease but I will not enslave another human being by virtue of the wealth I have to escape it.
This statement has a hidden assumption that living donation is unsafe. If this were true, we should not have living donation at all.
The problem with your statement is that it is not an assumption that it is unsafe in organ vendors, it has already been shown:
A socioeconomic survey of kidney vendors in Pakistan
In recent years, Pakistan has emerged as one of the largest centres for commerce and tourism in renal transplantation. Kidney vendors belong to Punjab in eastern Pakistan, the agricultural heartland, where 34% people live below poverty line. We report results of a socioeconomic and health survey of 239 kidney vendors. The mean age was 33.6 ± 7.2 years (M:F 3.5:1). Mean nephrectomy period was 4.8 ± 2.3 years. Ninety per cent of the vendors were illiterate. Sixty-nine per cent were bonded labourers who were virtual slaves to landlords, labourers 12%, housewives 8.5% and unemployed 11%. Monthly income was $US15.4 ± 8.9 with 2–11 dependents per family. Majority (93%), vended for debt repayment with mean debt of $1311.4 ± 819. The mean agreed sale price was $1737 ± 262. However, they received $1377 ± 196 after deduction for hospital and travel expenses. Postvending 88% had no economic improvement in their lives and 98% reported deterioration in general health status. Future vending was encouraged by 35% to pay off debts and freedom from bondage. This study gives a snapshot of kidney vendors from Pakistan. These impoverished people, many in bondage, are examples of modern day slavery. They will remain exploited until law against bondage is implemented and new laws are introduced to ban commerce and transplant tourism in Pakistan.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117999398/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
You are making an assumption that paid organ donors will have the same outcomes as highly selected living donors in the western world where only the most healthy were allowed to donate. We have very limited studies on these people and they compare their survival to the general population. This may be flawed in part due to lack of a control group as well as the inability to measure the expected survival in those that did donate when selection was stringent and whether they would have actually lived longer than the general population. In short, we do NOT have all the evidence needed to answer this simple question because we do not have donor registry to follow all of their outcomes. When you look at the only legal organ market in Iran and the illicit markets in Pakistan, your assumption would be incorrect.
In addition, there is a 1/3000 death rate for living donation in the US as well as documented decline in renal function at a rate higher than the general population. People that donate kidneys do die during the procedure and I remember a case of that happening a couple months ago that was noted in the news. For those that make an informed choice and are NOT under coercion, it is their choice to take that risk. People that are coerced are not considered legally to have made a free choice. That is the issue with paid organ donation which would exploit the poor in the industrialized nations just as it does in the third world nations. In such, the ethical prohibition against an organ market is quite justified.
Bill Peckham just placed a post on DSEN about this very issue.
http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2010/07/aei-publishes-another-kidneycentric-call-for-an-organ-market.html
-
I agree with Hemodoc and Karol regarding the buying and selling of kidneys in the many poor countries. I don't want that kind of practices in anywhere. What I like to change is to have a system that can have a high standard to evaluate donors. No any donors can donate without passing the evaluation. The problems with the poor countires are lack of enforcement for evaluations and illegal activities (black markets). If a donor can pass the same evaluation as in the current U.S. centers, whether she or he gets paid is a moral issue, not a major health issue. I would not like to play rich/poor cards. In this world, few things can be strictly equal. If everything is equal to everyone, then we would not want to live in it.
-
Found this article. I wonder what things like "There were 70% of vendors isolated from society" means, and how it was measured [scratches head] but this is from the journal of urology so I suppose they handled their study with some rigour. I also wonder how they found 300 vendors to take the survey at all... so I have some questions about what the statements made below mean, but still, they are pretty full on results, for example, "They responded that if they had another chance 85% would definitely not vend again, and 76% strongly discouraged potential vendors from "repeating their error."
n
Zargooshi, J. (2001). "Quality of life of Iranian kidney "donors"." The Journal Of Urology 166(5): 1790-1799.
PURPOSE: The quality of life of Iranian kidney vendors was clarified. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was completed by 300 kidney vendors 6 to 132 months postoperatively (median 61). Interviews and living conditions were videotaped. In addition, the 300 vendors and 100 controls that underwent nephrectomy for benign disease completed the RAND 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36). RESULTS: Poverty prevented 79% of vendors from attending followup visits, and vending caused negative effects on employment in 65%. Of the families 68% strongly disagreed with vending, which caused rejection of 43% and increased marital conflicts in 73% of vendors, including 21% who divorced. There were 70% of vendors isolated from society, and 71% had severe de novo postoperative depression and 60% anxiety. Vending caused somewhat (20%) to very (66%) negative financial effects. It also had negative effects on the physical abilities in 60% of vendors who were mainly unskilled laborers, and 80% were dissatisfied with postoperative physical stamina, which was decreased mostly by depression. Of the vendors 37% concealed the truth of kidney sale from anyone, 14% disclosed it only to spouses, 43% to first generation relatives and 94% were unwilling to be known as donors. The mental preoccupation with kidney loss was usually (30%) to always (57%) present and interfered negatively with vendor life, and 62% reported negative effects on sense of being useful. Effects on general health were somewhat (22%) to very (58%) negative. When thinking about vending, the majority cited negative feelings. They responded that if they had another chance 85% would definitely not vend again, and 76% strongly discouraged potential vendors from "repeating their error." Half the vendors were ready to lose greater than 10 years of life and 76% to 100% of properties to regain kidneys. Compared to controls, vendors had significantly lower scores on all SF-36 scales (p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our sample is a good representative of Iranian kidney vendors, with the majority having psychosocial complications. Globally, the medical community should focus more attention on motivations, quality of life, health and opinions of kidney vendors.
-
If there were an unregulated market in kidneys from living donors it would be hard to try to prevent the commercialization of cadaveric kidneys. Families would attach a price tag to the kidneys of their deceased kin and only the wealthy would get transplants.
-
If there were an unregulated market in kidneys from living donors it would be hard to try to prevent the commercialization of cadaveric kidneys. Families would attach a price tag to the kidneys of their deceased kin and only the wealthy would get transplants.
Everyone could get the deceased donor kidneys if there was a flat rate, paid by insurance. But then maybe a family would start bumping off dispensable cousins.... that might be a problem. :rofl;
-
70K!!! the middle men are the ones getting the huge part of this sum. last time i heard, the donor only get 3k more or less for their kidney. 4 years ago, my friend had his transplant and it cost him more or less 20k all in all. he doesn't know who the donor is and im sure it was from someone who sold his kidney.
-
Even if I had the means, which I don't, I don't think I could buy a kidney and go about my life with a clear conscious. It just seems incredibly wrong to me
-
A few members have received emails or PM's from a spammer. Please let me know if you ever get anything like this:
Welcome to china for kidney transplant，Waiting time is two weeks.
I come from Guangzhou China, Our major is organ transplant, I hope our website can provide the transplant info for you. If you or your friends need to have a kidney transplant, please visit our website.
The member who sent this has been banned for life. It's one thing to have an open discussion on the forum, but to spam our members, no way.
-
Received from UNOS:
Federal Trade Commission Alert Regarding Alleged Scam of Transplant Patients
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently received notification of an alleged scam whereby patients waiting for an organ transplant are contacted by phone and requested to provide money in exchange for receiving a donor organ. It is unlawful to buy and sell organs for transplant in the United States. If you are contacted and requested to provide money to obtain a donor organ, please contact the FTC immediately by phone at 1-877-382-4357 or by Internet http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm. In general, if you are approached to buy or sell an organ for transplantation, immediately notify federal or local law enforcement.
-
Got this one the other day...FYI
Welcome to china for kidney transplant，Waiting time is two weeks.
I come from Guangzhou China, Our major is organ transplant, I hope our website can provide the transplant info for you. If you or your friends need to have a kidney transplant, please visit our website：
http://mag********
E-MAIL: hla********
MSN：hla*********
TEL: 0086*********
FAX: 0086**********
Edited: Thanks. I am removing the contact info so as not to perpetuate the spam.
okarol/admin
-
Sent a copy of the e-mail I received this am Miss Karol
~debs
-
I got one this morning, too.
-
I am sorry this is happening. If you get a similar email please forward it to me:
ihatedialysis@yahoo.com
We can track the sender's IP address and ban the culprit.
okarol/admin
-
Member "woaixiaolang" banned: Unauthorized soliticitation via members email to promote transplant tourism
okarol/admin
-
I received the China email last week too. I deleted it.
-
Just a reminder - let us know if you are contacted by anyone offering to sell organs. If a member is using PM's or emails gathered here we will ban them from the forum.
:thx;
okarol/admin
-
I don't see a problem with having incentives for living donation, be it money or whatever else. That said, like those cases in Pakistan, India, etc. where out of desperation, these folks sell their kidneys for what they think is $3,000 or $5,000... They wind up getting $600, if they are lucky. One special I saw, a mother sold one for $3,000, her middle man took $2400 for "expenses" and now her son is in renal failure and she can't donate to him.
If I have the means, I have no qualms about benefiting someone who is a perfect match for living donation, provided they understand the risk involved. Death is a possibility in any undertaking. Be it when I go skydiving this summer or someone donating a kidney. If they are willing to step up, so am I.
-
At this point I'd sell both of mine for a big glass of potassium laden orange juice and a chocolate bar...they aren't much use for making urine but they might make a nice steak and kidney pie!
-
I am not sure how many of you have read this news item
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13639934
It is sad to notice that people are very gullible. ???
I remember one instance, in India, when I was visiting my doc, 12 yrs ago, a guy waiting in the clinic to donate his kidney ( rather sell his kidney) for 1 lakh indian rs, which was around $2800 then. Right now,the law is very strict in Asian countries. But , then, there was a broker walking around the hospital premises, who used to get " donors" and match them with patients. Awful, I understand :( . But, it was almost a norm then. Lot of things happened, the patients met with the potential donors, signed a form saying they are related and got transplanted. Things have changed now. Luckily, my mother was a perfect match for me and donated one. Retrospectively, I am not sure, what I would have done otherwise, in desperation. I was 21. My parents might have gone through the other path, to save their child.
-
My kidneys are broken and damaged so no one would want to buy mine! :rofl;
But it's not my fault since I have IGA nephropathy! :angel;
-
If there were an unregulated market in kidneys from living donors it would be hard to try to prevent the commercialization of cadaveric kidneys. Families would attach a price tag to the kidneys of their deceased kin and only the wealthy would get transplants.
Everyone could get the deceased donor kidneys if there was a flat rate, paid by insurance. But then maybe a family would start bumping off dispensable cousins.... that might be a problem. :rofl;
Of greater concern would be families lying about the health and/or lifestyle history of the donor in order to assure a sale of the product.
A better approach would be to have a master registry and give everyone one year of "credit" for each year they list themselves on the cadaver donor list (without any filtering as to suitability to discourage lying). When you need a part, the number of year you have as a percentage of your "adult age of consent eligible years where you could have signed up for the registry" would be a significant factor in your place on the list.
My guess is this would encourage more donors. As it stands now, there are plenty of people who would never consent to have their body mutilated before it decomposes, but will gladly accept a donated part if they are the one in need.
I haven't signed up for the list yet, however, it is annoying to think that if I go that route I my history of having signed the donor card, and indicated this to my next of kin ever since age 18, makes me no different than a "don't touch my corpse" person.
-
Simon, there should be some REGULATED compensation with a MAXIMUM CAP of $5000 or $6000 if you donated a kidney. It would cost around 500 million dollars which a billionaire like Bloomberg or Gates could easily afford!
Imagine the waiting list going from 92,000 to under 10,000? IF there was REGULATED compensation it could!
-
If $5-$6K would do it, let those who can afford pay. Those who believe in "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" would be offended it isn't "fair", but even those not paying would benefit from reduced stress on the list.
-
If $5-$6K would do it, let those who can afford pay. Those who believe in "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" would be offended it isn't "fair", but even those not paying would benefit from reduced stress on the list.
The point is to have a CAP so people can't abuse the system. One of my dialysis nurses joked with me that he want $7 million for his kidney! That's insane but 5 to 10 thousand is ok of course there must be a cap and be regulated!
-
If there's money on the table, do you think some people might lie about their family health history? Or their drug use or other risky behaviors? Do you think a pimp might force a prostitute to go cash in her kidney? Or maybe a desperate spouse might pressure their husband or wife to donate? I don't really know, but these are things we should talk about.
-
If there's money on the table, do you think some people might lie about their family health history? Or their drug use or other risky behaviors? Do you think a pimp might force a prostitute to go cash in her kidney? Or maybe a desperate spouse might pressure their husband or wife to donate? I don't really know, but these are things we should talk about.
Good point but they thoroughly test a kidney and donor out before approving them. I'm just saying it's very hard to get someone to donate if they get NOTHING in return!
Many of us have tried getting it from a stranger with no luck! If a small amount of compensation was offered you could bring the list down to almost ZERO!
-
Our daughter was given a kidney by a stranger we met through Living Donors Online. It is failing now so we've posted on facebook too. There are so many living donors who want nothing in return.
There are some tax benefits in the US:
Financing Living Donation / Legislation
Federal Legislation
Federal employees receive 30 days paid leave for organ donation, in addition to their sick and annual leave (HR 457).
State Legislation
Many states have passed laws that makes it easier to become a living donor by providing time off for state and/or private sector employees. Some states also offer tax deductions or credits for travel expenses and time away from work. And in other states, legislation has only been introduced, but not signed into law.
For more info go to http://www.transplantliving.org/living-donation/financing-living-donation/legislation/
-
I wish they'd hurry up with bio-artificial kidneys or stem cell derived kidneys so we don't have to go through this!
-
I have a friend (a nurse, no less!) who told me to advertise to buy a kidney overseas! I told her that I couldn't do that, it was illegal! She replied "No one would ever know."
I was flabbergasted!
-
Yea I remember Mitch. I hope that jerk is in jail. He was so pushy and obnoxious I could not stand it. One of the reasons I kinda faded away from here!! I was glad to see nothing like that seems to be happening any longer. On lighter side I wonder if we could offer a green card for a donation. Just kidding no I'm not. Yea I am. LOL
-
Our daughter was given a kidney by a stranger we met through Living Donors Online. It is failing now so we've posted on facebook too. There are so many living donors who want nothing in return.
Karol, I really don't think there are "so many" otherwise you wouldn't have 90,000+ people on the list in a nation of 310 million people. You realize if less than 1 in 1000 peope donated the list would be wiped out?
No doubt there are altruistic donors out there but it's still very hard to find someone like that. Look at the thread where our own family members won't even get tested!
And why do you spell Karol instead of Carol? :yahoo;
-
Our daughter was given a kidney by a stranger we met through Living Donors Online. It is failing now so we've posted on facebook too. There are so many living donors who want nothing in return.
Karol, I really don't think there are "so many" otherwise you wouldn't have 90,000+ people on the list in a nation of 310 million people. You realize if less than 1 in 1000 peope donated the list would be wiped out?
No doubt there are altruistic donors out there but it's still very hard to find someone like that. Look at the thread where our own family members won't even get tested!
And why do you spell Karol instead of Carol? :yahoo;
1. I mean that there are many people who donate to strangers, asking nothing in return. It's a huge thing to do and not everyone is willing to take the risks.
2. Agree, it takes effort to find someone. They are not going to just knock on your door and offer. Many people just do not know how many people are waiting for an organ transplant. It's our job to tell our stories, get the word out. And I personally think it's a waste of time to hold on to resentments about family not getting tested. If they don't offer, forget it.
3. That's what my parents named me.
-
3. That's what my parents named me.
:-*
-
Karol, that's fine but I just thought it's spelled Carol not Karol. :2thumbsup;
As far as the risks go for kidney donation they are miniscule IF the person is healthy. Even deaths from living liver donation are quite rare and make national news when they happen.
I saw a story on Dateline NBC last year of a guy who died after donating a liver to his bro but I think he died of cardiac arrest so it had nothing to do with the liver.
-
Darn it, I was looking forward to sellin my old transplanted kidneys... They were both infected so I thought I'd offer a discount. lol j/k :rofl;
-
Take it easy for buying and selling kidneys. If more than half of patients do buying, I would get my kidney very soon. So we, patients on the waiting list, are benefiting from this. Whether this law itself is moral or not is debable. This law is making more patients die each day.
My wife is Filipino and it would have been very easy to by a kidney with my connections to the Phillipines which I would never do. I find it absolutely reprehensible that renal disease is now becoming an excuse for a new colonial behavior in the western world. This is most especially true when we consider that daily dialysis has equal survival to cadaveric transplant. The only manner in which to keep the facade of morality of selling organs is to ignore that proven fact. I will live or die with my renal disease but I will not enslave another human being by virtue of the wealth I have to escape it. Anyone that spends even a modicum of time on the plight of the poor that become organ vendors in Pakistan and other parts of the world would not view it as anything but an evil act of greed upon them by merchants treating them as a commodity. DSEN has many posts discussing the moral and ethical and medical reasons why this should never be allowed in this nation.
http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/08/most-iranian-pa.html
I applaud IHD and Okarol for her stand to maintain the standards of IHD.
Yes, the dialysis industry hides their hypocrisy behind the poor. The wailing and whining about the Western powers is more popular nonsense. Slavery has been going on since the beginning of time. The first slaves were from Eastern Europe, hence the name for Slave comes from the word, Slav. To make a very, very long story short, the Western powers were the ones to stop slavery, because they had the military power to enforce the prohibition of slavery. In addition, many issues or problems from the African continent are from conditions of geography, not anyone or thing from Europe.
Stanford Economist Sowell:
"Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the most tragic geographic handicaps of any region of the world. Navigable waterways, which have been crucial to the development of nations and of cultures, are severely limited in most of Africa. Poor soil and inadequate and undependable rainfall patterns shrink the possibilities still further.
Ideologues love to think of African poverty as caused by "exploitation" on the part of Western countries. But, with a few notable exceptions, Africa has had little to be exploited. Even at the height of European imperialism, there was far less foreign trade or foreign investment in the whole vast continent of Africa than in a little country like Belgium or Switzerland."
-
I am curious, in how many of the individuals who wrote the Organ law, would be willing to live that way themselves? Think of it this way:
This is one of my old essays:
One of the main reasons that I am for the selling of kidneys for transplants, is that it would eliminate the shortage of kidneys. Think of it this way, private profits and socialized losses. In other words, in the bank bailout of 2007-2008, taxpayers bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with private banks. Yet, those institutions are allowed to keep their profits while the taxpayer picks up the loss. In a kidney transplant, hospitals will examine your wallet before giving you or anyone else, a transplant. This enables the hospital to make a big profit and keep that profit. However, who is paying for the loss of the kidney, the taxpayer or Medicare. In other words, as in the banking situation, it is private profit and socialized loss.
I am curious, why is the hospital allowed to profit, while the donor is not? Does the hospital know about the needs or situation of the donor, I seriously doubt it. Does anyone believe with almost 100,000 individuals needing a kidney on a list, that this policy is doing a good job of meeting the needs of the individuals on the kidney transplant list??? Actually, you have less than a 30% percent chance of receiving a kidney transplant from the list. In other words, just a fortunate few are receiving transplants from that list, is that any better than rich people receiving transplants because they have money? Clearly, this transplant policy is not working, only a fortunate few are receiving transplants. The same people that complain about the fortunate few rich people receiving transplants are silent when only a fortunate few on the transplant list receive their transplants.
I hear people talking about "greed." When you work at a job, do you insist on being paid? Do you work for free without monetary compensation? If you insist being paid any monetary amount, you are "greedy." Do you think Hitler rewarded virtue? Do you think the Soviet Communist Party rewarded virtue? The Soviet Communist Party shopped at special stores, while the majority of people waited hours in line for basic food items. In kidney transplants, it is not any different. The hospital and the fortunate few who receive kidney transplants are shopping at the special store, while the vast majority of kidney patients are suffering and waiting with inadequate dialysis treatments, suffering from raging thirst, malnutrition, and feeling washed out and hopeless. They have to listen loud and moralizing lectures from individuals who have been catered to at the special store. The individuals who have been catered to a the special store insist that they as a third party know what is best for them, not allowing them to make their own decisions. The catered people would never, ever allow third parties to make life altering decisions for them or their freedoms. As long as they have their freedom and they are not living the way that they demand of masses, what do they care?
Ladies and Gentlemen, you are being scammed.
-
Simon, there should be some REGULATED compensation with a MAXIMUM CAP of $5000 or $6000 if you donated a kidney. It would cost around 500 million dollars which a billionaire like Bloomberg or Gates could easily afford!
Imagine the waiting list going from 92,000 to under 10,000? IF there was REGULATED compensation it could!
Regulation=cost. So you would like to regulate to drive the costs of kidney donation even higher?
-
Take it easy for buying and selling kidneys. If more than half of patients do buying, I would get my kidney very soon. So we, patients on the waiting list, are benefiting from this. Whether this law itself is moral or not is debable. This law is making more patients die each day.
My wife is Filipino and it would have been very easy to by a kidney with my connections to the Phillipines which I would never do. I find it absolutely reprehensible that renal disease is now becoming an excuse for a new colonial behavior in the western world. This is most especially true when we consider that daily dialysis has equal survival to cadaveric transplant. The only manner in which to keep the facade of morality of selling organs is to ignore that proven fact. I will live or die with my renal disease but I will not enslave another human being by virtue of the wealth I have to escape it. Anyone that spends even a modicum of time on the plight of the poor that become organ vendors in Pakistan and other parts of the world would not view it as anything but an evil act of greed upon them by merchants treating them as a commodity. DSEN has many posts discussing the moral and ethical and medical reasons why this should never be allowed in this nation.
http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/08/most-iranian-pa.html
I applaud IHD and Okarol for her stand to maintain the standards of IHD.
So, the medical community should make a monetary fortune of a kidney transplant? Yet, the donor, who takes the biggest risk, is not compensated, at all? It is amazing to me that the very same people who cry and moan about greed, are the very first ones to stick their hands out. The medical community is going to charge $250,000 for a kidney and they are concerned about greed? The same people who do a wallet scan out of an individual who needs that transplant, before anything else happens, are going to have a hissy fist over money for a organ donation? So, you are willing to force your viewpoint on how other people should live, what if they do not agree with your viewpoint? You think that the Nephrology and the Dialysis industry does not treat us as a commodity? There are many things that you could give to a kidney donor, besides money. I have had people in the transplant industry or the hospital tell me that they have the right to act as a business, but, that a kidney donor does not have the same rights as they do, OH, THE HYPOCRISY!!!
-
Take it easy for buying and selling kidneys. If more than half of patients do buying, I would get my kidney very soon. So we, patients on the waiting list, are benefiting from this. Whether this law itself is moral or not is debable. This law is making more patients die each day.
My wife is Filipino and it would have been very easy to by a kidney with my connections to the Phillipines which I would never do. I find it absolutely reprehensible that renal disease is now becoming an excuse for a new colonial behavior in the western world. This is most especially true when we consider that daily dialysis has equal survival to cadaveric transplant. The only manner in which to keep the facade of morality of selling organs is to ignore that proven fact. I will live or die with my renal disease but I will not enslave another human being by virtue of the wealth I have to escape it. Anyone that spends even a modicum of time on the plight of the poor that become organ vendors in Pakistan and other parts of the world would not view it as anything but an evil act of greed upon them by merchants treating them as a commodity. DSEN has many posts discussing the moral and ethical and medical reasons why this should never be allowed in this nation.
http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/08/most-iranian-pa.html
I applaud IHD and Okarol for her stand to maintain the standards of IHD.
In addition, there is not a guarantee that the kidney would work.
Edited: Fixed quote tag error - okarol/admin
-
I haven't received anything like this here but on my facebook page, I've gotten several questionable responses. I write back and give them my TX coodinator's email address. She told me to do that and she would handle it for me. :clap; (Us Shanahans have to stick together! LOL!)
-
I've no douoobt that big business will someday eventually get into the kidney market. Recycling cadaver parts, or something.
My fear is organ rejection. Once big business gets involved that corporate greed will 'tilt' selections. Reducing the quality of tissue matching, possibly.
I mean get serious. How can anyone warranty a used part? It is not like 'if it don't work, or if it fails within X number of month/years, I'll replace it!'
Those that have working transplants have to admit the safeguard built into the current matching system are in place to protect the patient.
Yea, I need a kidney, but I have had a bad reaction to an anti-rejection med. I'm sure it would have killed me if I continued to take it. If I was to get a kidney, I'd have to take that med, sicken, and probably die, wasting that kidney. So rather than risk a rejection and wasting that kidney, let someone with a better outlook have it. I'd be crushed if I lost it. I'm OK on PD. I'm not a myrtyr, just a realist. I don't think a transplant today is a viable alternate for me. Perfectly fine for a guaranteed tissue match. I just don't think that's me.