Posted on 12/19/2008 10:53:01 PM PST by neverdem
In a country where 300 million people live on less than a dollar a day, Amit Kumar—nicknamed “Dr. Horror” by the Indian media after his arrest last winter for heading an illicit global kidney-transplant ring—had little trouble finding homegrown organ donors. One favorite hunting ground was a strip of restaurants, shops, and hovels near an Islamic shrine, or dargah, in Mahim, a predominantly Muslim precinct of Mumbai. Devotees of the dargah, which attracts people of all faiths, donate money to restaurants to help feed the beggars who cluster there. Last June, walking past one such restaurant whose kitchen extends to the sidewalk, I saw a dozen or so men huddled within scorching distance of giant cauldrons in which meat and potatoes simmered. Expressions glazed and clothing in tatters, the men watched, motionless and silent, their patience unwavering. I felt as if I were looking at a still photo.
Kumar, who’s now on trial, has told officials that he sent his agents to offer such men anywhere from $500 to $2,500 for a kidney. Elsewhere, in the fast-growing towns of states like Haryāna and Uttar Pradesh, Kumar’s ring also went after newly arrived migrant workers seeking jobs.
Most donors were keen to trade their kidneys for cash. Some were professional blood donors, such as Mahesh, who worked at a tea stall near a century-old clock tower with a shattered dial that rises above Meerut, a city in Uttar Pradesh, near Delhi. He, in turn, told me about Shahid, a rickshaw puller who joined Kumar’s group after having made a career out of finding men who would sell their blood to nursing homes. Leveraging his knowledge of blood sellers, Shahid became one of Kumar’s most successful kidney hunters. Then there was Gyasuddin, a boyish-looking migrant worker with a shock of hair who...
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Perhaps the kidney trade should be legalized. Those suffering from kidney failure obviously need a kidney more than many people walking around with two need to keep both, who in turn might really value some extra cash. Sounds like a win-win trade.
Ghoulish, perhaps, but is that a good reason to ban it? It could easily save thousands of lives a year.
Kidney theft does happen, apparently!
Of course, the best advice is:
Control your blood pressure, prevent or control diabetes and you will likely keep your own kidneys working.
Why would a legal organ market be so bad? Conservative economists such as Gragory Mankiw support it. It is an area where demand significantly exceeds supply because market trades are prohibited, with deadly consequences. Allowing people who need money more than they need an extra kidney to sell one of theirs to people who badly need a kidney would be beneficial to both parties.
You are right that the black market is shady. If the trade were legalized conditions could improve significantly as legitimate doctors replaced these black market operators. The process would be no more dangerous to paid “donors” than a transplant operation is to voluntary donors here.
And it’s unfortunate that they have to sell their body parts to survive, but that’s life in India. What’s your alternative—let them die because this practice seems grotesque to you?
Why do you suppose doctors are so desperate to get these organs? It wouldn't have anything to do with the enormous shortage of organs currently available would it? A shortage that would ease significantly if people were allowed to sell their kidneys, significantly increasing the supply.
Your world view seems to be very brutal and dog eat dog.
I'm a realist. Life must be pretty hard over there if people are willing to sell their organs, but until that changes do you really want to deprive them of one thing that could significantly a few people's financial position? Or should we ban it to protect their dignity (while they continue to live in squalor)?
It is the shortages that allow this industry to be so profitable in the first place. You should understand the economics of the issue before you take a position on it.
And I have no idea how you analogize this to the immigration debate, but whatever.
with your brilliant ‘economics” reasoning, why not just kill elderly people and harvest their organs. I mean, really THAt would be really economical for our country.
There are values that transcend economics and your argument just leaves those out...sort of like a lot of other brilliant scientific and economic theories.
We just found out that scientific advances in stem cell research now make embryonic stem cell creation needless.
I want to live in aworld that has values of pro life and human dignity as well as facing economic realities. And that is not easy, but the alternative is ugly.
Of course if is between the government and the people, we know how that works out.
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