Kidney exchange provokes hot debates

[okarol]

Kidney exchange provokes hot debates

China.org.cn

A recent kidney transplant operation, in which each family of the two patients donated a kidney to the other, has spurred even greater controversy, bringing intervention from authorities, the Guangzhou-based Information Times reported Wednesday.

The operation was first denied by the No. 2 Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College in the southern province of Guangdong. The mass media successively exposed the eye-catching event, drawing considerable attention from various circles of society ever since. Although the two uremia sufferers finally underwent the operations at the Hospital of Hainan Farming Bureau in Hainan Province on Monday, the heat of the debate resulting from the twisting story is still on.

When the two uremia sufferers, He Yiwen and He Zhigang found out that suitable kidney donors with compatible blood types were from the family of each other, the two families decided to exchange kidneys.

Unfortunately, after they were accepted by the No. 2 Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, the medical ethics committee of the hospital vetoed the transplant surgery, saying it violated the "Human Organ Transplant Regulations" issued by the State Council in May, 2007.

According to one of the members of the committee, the exchange is morally acceptable, but the situation of the two patients failed to comply with any one of the three conditions under which the exchange kidneys could be legally carried out.

The denial of the trans-donation gave rise to a fierce dispute among different voices. An on-line poll demonstrated that 86.1% of Internet voters took sides with humanity while 11.91% supported the inviolability of the law.

In spite of the setback, the two patients were subsequently accepted by the Hospital of Hainan Farming Bureau and the kidney operation was carried out successfully on January 7. Till then, the event seemed to come to a smooth end.

However, the front-page news incurred interventional investigation from Hainan Provincial Department of Health, for its legitimacy was under suspicion.

In the meantime, the Provincial Health Department of Guangdong, where the first concerning hospital is located, also criticized the surgery as against the "Human Organ Transplant Regulations" and that kidney transplant might not have been the best cure in this case.

For the moment, this argument of social ethics vs. rationality of law sees no hope of dying down.

(CRI January 9, 2008)

http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/238756.htm