Saturday, November 05, 2005
The Organ Trail
Everyday thousands of people die of kidney failure, usually after being hooked onto a dialysis machine for years and wasting away like an undead corpse. The dialysis machine is a monster of a machine that plays the part of a kidney, using hooks and motors and devices to slide under the skin and into the vessels ultimately cleaning out harmful toxins from the affected. The idea of laying out half of your life on a hospital bed confined to four white walls, white sheets, and white curtains and a visiting hour once a day seems just as morose as death. For those who are faced with the predicament, there are two choices, dialysis or kidney transplant.
In the case of Iran, where kidney trafficking is legal and recognized by the government, there are organizations that deal with the planning, surgery, and payment of the seller as well as the trafficking of organs to the hospitals where sick buyers wait.
But, although there are two organizations dealing in this marginally socio-economic endeavor, a handful of people in the IRI are faced with a dangerous future when giving away their kidneys for money to illegal agencies.
Usually, it is the poorest of the poor who sell their kidneys, for nearly 1000 to 3000 dollars, and they cannot afford hospital treatment or transplant surgeries if they are ever affected by anything pertaining to their last remaining kidney. The sad part is that these kidneys are sold on the “open” grey markets for much more than a measly thousand or two. The price of a kidney could rise up to the hundred thousands in grey markets, making it a very dangerous and un-ethical enterprise for both sellers and buyers. The middle-man gets the most of it here.
Legally, the business endorsements by both seller and buyer are not recognized and can even result in some tough citations from the governments involved. Think of it this way, you have a priceless kidney that you want to sell, the grey market is the middle-man, and the recipient is the buyer.
But who’s to say that the money will come in full, or that any bonus that is promised will be sent? The seller is practically an illiterate or destitute individual hoping to fix up the house and get a new bicycle and there is no guarantee that they will receive the money they had hoped for, and there is no help either.
There are solutions to this, like opening up country markets to legalize this brand of human tissue trade. It sounds very invasive and immoral to most people, but if there are laws that tackled the issues surrounding the transplant trade there could be brighter futures for the buyer AS WELL as the poor sellers.
Note: In
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0609/p01s03-wogi.html
