A person can live with one kidney...
You are desperately poor, your village was ravaged by a tsunami, and you are living in a refugee camp. Would you sell one of your kidneys to a black-market broker for $3000? Many women are doing so in India. Read about the struggles in these poor villages, and the dilemma about whether to make organ sales legal.
9 comments:
After reading the article on the India Black-Market scandal it is extremely disturbing that women are selling organs to survive, while others are justifying that it will promote aid. Developing countries, or ones that have gone through natural disasters, such as Chennai, are in desperate need of help from their government or other more developed nations. The worse part is that these individuals profiting off of the organs of others are not redistributing the money that they have gotten from them. The people in these countries are deprived of resources that others take for granted and they believe that by selling their organs they will be able to support their families. Many of these citizens are living off of $1 a day, while in the U.S. we buy Starbucks coffees for 5 times the amount. Situations like this are screaming for solutions and until someone intervenes scandals like this will continue to occur and endanger the lives of these people.
Here's an interesting article on organ black-market trading from the NY Times:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C0CE0DD163EF930A15756C0A9629C8B63
Loren 3875
Alexandra 5802
After reading this article, I realized that poverty is more detrimental to our world, than I had previously thought. It is a very disturbing thought that women in India and other poverty induced nations are selling their organs to survive. Concomitantly, it is even more disturbing that these donors were expecting that their organs would distribute aid, but the exact opposite happened. It makes me sad to think that women in India and in many other 3rd world nations live off of less than $1 a day, and barely have access to life's basic necessities, such as water, food, and shelter. On the contrary, people in the U.S. and in other 1st world countries, are extremely spoiled, and some even complain if they can't have filet mignons for dinner once a week. Women in India and other 3rd world countries have to sell their organs to survive. This is a very controversial phenomenon, since these women will probably die whether or not they sell their organs; if they sell their organs, they can abtain a deadly disease, which they will not be able to afford to cure. If they don't sell their organs, they will most likely die from starvation or other diseases. Either way, women in India have a very low chance of survival, due to poverty and malnutrition. For this reason, I believe that organ black-market trading should be illegal.
Here is an interesting article on organ donations in the black-market.
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~gillm/Paying%20for%20Kidneys.pdf
Considering the conditions they are living, I think selling a kidney could help. I don't know though, $3000 dollars? I might hold out for more, or wait until demand for kidneys rise. Just kidding. This article though makes me a little sad and that it is true that no good deed goes unpunished. I feel for Selvam. All he ever wanted was aide for his fellow citizens and the only way he figured to get the government's attention and distribute aide, only led to Selvam's demise. Also it disturbs me that kidney sellers or donors have the same gleam in their eye just like someone who is going to America (this could be held to much sarcasm, depending on the author, but let's not think about it that way). But the fact that selling their kidney to a black-market broker is the bordering the very last means of economic survival seems a little off to me.
Another desperate move at getting ahead in life.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/22/wirq22.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/22/ixworld.html
Vidya 7546
Growing up for four years in my early teens in India, these issues were brought back to light after being repressed for quite some time. After being exposed to all this (meaning hearing about it daily on the news, or having your grandparents discuss it at the dinner table) at a young age, I understood how people do whatever it takes to get money or power, or prestige. It's sad that things have come to this stage. And what's worse is that when people take a stand this way, the correct way, they are ostracized for doing the right thing because it is culturally shameful to act this way. Such an article inspires me, as a Political Science major to be the change which I wish to see, starting at the grassroots level. What I hope for more is that people , villagers, etc, understand how important it is to survive, and how all parts of the body function just as a government should - all parts of the town, city, state, nation should function as one and will only then be fully effective. Here's an interesting article I found regarding a similar topic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
news/2004/01/0116_040116_EXPLorgant
raffic.html
Aniela 5959
Honestly, I think sometimes you have to do what you have to do to survive. I feel that there are far worse things they could be doing. I once saw a documentary about woman living in the inner cities who were forced to be prostitutes as a way of survival. They would use the same bedroom that she and her husband slept in and the husband and kids would wait outside. I think in a choice between a kidney and prostitution, the kidney takes the cake. There is no doubt that what these people are going through is horrific and that this way of survival is disgusting, but if they survive, then it's worth it, isn't it? I feel like it has come to this, the world is a horrible place and Americans don't even understand what life is really like, but people do what they have to do to survive, whatever that may mean. A 10 hour day at the office, a 10 hour day in a field, an organ, prostitution, or murder, life is life and we all have to find a way. I am not saying it is ok and I am not saying it is something that should be encouraged but it is suriviving and as far as I'm concerned that is a human beings number one goal.
Here is an article similar to the one we had to read for this blog.
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2007/05/india_transplants_main
Aniela 5959
woops, I still had the link from the actual article copied on my right click, I ment to put this one...
http://www.multiline.com.au/~donor/black.html
Nicholas 9969
When it comes to individuals selling organs for compensation, the obvious question that arises is whether or not that person was coerced into doing so or did so out of free will. Since this practice is quite common among third world countries, it would seem to me that the donors are coerced to a certain extent into giving up one of their kidneys. Coercion does not necessarily mean the use of violence, but rather one could say that the impoverished condition the donor lives in is coercive enough to force them to give up an organ. Personally, if I absolutely had to give up a kidney for my own survival, I think I would do it. However, if that's what anyone truly wants is simply beyond the question. Without proper healthcare and a more even distribution of wealth throughout the world, it seems like these kinds of desperate decisions will continue to be made unless drastic changes occur.
Here's an article on the issue of kidney sales in India:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSDEL21432720070116
Adrian Tafoya 4773
I'm not completely sure how I feel about this. On one hand you are very poor and are most likely having trouble supporting the needs of yourself let alone your family. Someone offering you a sum of $3000 would certainly be a blessing even if the trade off is a kidney. On the other hand you are selling a part of your body where you would have to have surgery in order to remove the organ and since the black market's concern rest in the kidneys and not in the donor, there is no real incentive to keep the donor safe and these surgery's would pose a big problem.
Another concern is deflation. And that may seem a little crude but like j aaron 2081 suggested in her comment below I would also hold out for more than $3000. However as more and more kidneys are sold they lose their value since they are so available. then the $3000 kidney is now worth significantly less.
Despite these pros and cons; I beleive that if I was in the same situation as these impoverished Indians I would have no other choice but to do what was necessary in order to support my family. Enough said.
Here is an interesting article on the economics and politics of Selling Organs
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/98/donate-ro-sell.htm
Amira 7670
This article was very interesting; I personally was never aware of this form of trade. Reading such information was quite disheartening. The fact that people have reached a point of poverty where they have to sell their own organs to barely make a living reemphasizes the state at which the world is under.
However, a fine line is drawn here; it is hard to determine what is completely right between what is not. I feel that such organ traficking is an exploitation of human beings. On the other hand though, some of these people are so desparate to make a living, that they are willing to do almost anything to gain some sort of income. At the same time though, such a manner in getting more money is rather quite dangerous and humiliating, especially, like in this article, when your name is publicized. In addition, due to the fact that their organs are sold on the black market, it is certain that these people are being taken advantage of by the buyers. The buyers have reached a point where they just want to make the most money, not caring about the person, thus putting their lives in danger.
This article reminded me about something going on with my mom's cousin's husband. He is currently living in Egypt with his family but was diagnosed with liver cancer. He was recently transported to China to get a transplant. Supposedely there are liver centers that specialize in such illness. Of course his whole family was worried, considering the fact that they had never been there. The only thing they were counting on were recommendations from other doctors and family who knew the "right" people. We are now just hoping that everything works out well for him, and he is able to have a successful transplant.
Below is a link I found in the National Geographic site. Although it is not as recent, it discusses the issue of illicit trade of human parts.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0116_040116_EXPLorgantraffic.html
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