Post by Chips on May 6, 2008 11:10:03 GMT 9.5
Selling kidneys turns the poor into organ factories
My partner of 12 years has end-stage renal failure and has been on dialysis 10 hours a night - every night - for two years. He is also on the waiting list for a transplant. Despite this, I am appalled by a call by the nephrologist Gavin Carney for an exploitative scheme that would allow "young, healthy people" to sell their kidneys ("Sell your kidney for $50,000, says specialist", May 5).
If you are down and out, why wouldn't you consider improving your financial situation by donating a kidney? After all, you have two.
Penniless students could pay off their HECS debts in an instant and maybe buy a car or at least be able to eat something other than noodles once in a while. A person at risk of homelessness might be able to remain in housing. Sell a kidney, and you'd have the deposit to buy your first home. All good, right? Wrong.
This proposal would turn the poor and disadvantaged into little more than organ factories. And should these financially compensated donors experience failure of their one remaining kidney later in life, what then? What of the potential impact on their future health (or more callously, the impact of their future health care on Medicare)?
Or do we simply not care, because they are poor and thus disposable? Such exploitation is not something that an ethical society can condone. Yes, the demand for donor kidneys is far greater than supply, but this is not the way to increase organ availability.
The president-elect of the international Transplantation Society, Jeremy Chapman, noted there were 51 recommendations for increasing donor rates, none of which includes a pay-per-organ scheme. Let's try these first.
Melanie Ryan St Peters
While the suggestion of selling a kidney is debatable for many reasons, you can't sell a heart, and since acquiring a transplanted heart 18 years ago, I've been horrified by the negative responses I've received when asking countless people if they would donate their organs. Regardless of fully explaining the procedure and assuring them that a deceased body will be left in an all but immaculate condition, they invariably persist with their inane arguments. It's obvious that we need to legally reverse the current procedure so that people only sign a statement if they don't want their organs donated.
Yvonne Jones Pennant Hills
Gavin Carney's suggestion that young, healthy people should be allowed to sell their kidneys will raise public awareness and stimulate debate about the low supply of transplant organs in Australia. Let's hope his suggestion is not taken too seriously, lest we develop a new organ bank underclass.
Richard Collins Maroubra
So now we not only poach doctors and nurses from the less fortunate nations, but we can take their body parts as well. As food prices continue to rise and most of the world starves, we sit here, getting fatter, and assume our "right to life" and global domination. What has happened to our conscience?
Mark Slocum Dulwich Hill
It would be cheaper in the long run to invest in the prevention of that contributor to kidney failure, diabetes.
Bruce Stafford Tascott
I suggest Corey Worthington, Big Brother contestants and other vapid and objectionable youth be encouraged to sell both.
Paul Stevens Chatswood
My partner of 12 years has end-stage renal failure and has been on dialysis 10 hours a night - every night - for two years. He is also on the waiting list for a transplant. Despite this, I am appalled by a call by the nephrologist Gavin Carney for an exploitative scheme that would allow "young, healthy people" to sell their kidneys ("Sell your kidney for $50,000, says specialist", May 5).
If you are down and out, why wouldn't you consider improving your financial situation by donating a kidney? After all, you have two.
Penniless students could pay off their HECS debts in an instant and maybe buy a car or at least be able to eat something other than noodles once in a while. A person at risk of homelessness might be able to remain in housing. Sell a kidney, and you'd have the deposit to buy your first home. All good, right? Wrong.
This proposal would turn the poor and disadvantaged into little more than organ factories. And should these financially compensated donors experience failure of their one remaining kidney later in life, what then? What of the potential impact on their future health (or more callously, the impact of their future health care on Medicare)?
Or do we simply not care, because they are poor and thus disposable? Such exploitation is not something that an ethical society can condone. Yes, the demand for donor kidneys is far greater than supply, but this is not the way to increase organ availability.
The president-elect of the international Transplantation Society, Jeremy Chapman, noted there were 51 recommendations for increasing donor rates, none of which includes a pay-per-organ scheme. Let's try these first.
Melanie Ryan St Peters
While the suggestion of selling a kidney is debatable for many reasons, you can't sell a heart, and since acquiring a transplanted heart 18 years ago, I've been horrified by the negative responses I've received when asking countless people if they would donate their organs. Regardless of fully explaining the procedure and assuring them that a deceased body will be left in an all but immaculate condition, they invariably persist with their inane arguments. It's obvious that we need to legally reverse the current procedure so that people only sign a statement if they don't want their organs donated.
Yvonne Jones Pennant Hills
Gavin Carney's suggestion that young, healthy people should be allowed to sell their kidneys will raise public awareness and stimulate debate about the low supply of transplant organs in Australia. Let's hope his suggestion is not taken too seriously, lest we develop a new organ bank underclass.
Richard Collins Maroubra
So now we not only poach doctors and nurses from the less fortunate nations, but we can take their body parts as well. As food prices continue to rise and most of the world starves, we sit here, getting fatter, and assume our "right to life" and global domination. What has happened to our conscience?
Mark Slocum Dulwich Hill
It would be cheaper in the long run to invest in the prevention of that contributor to kidney failure, diabetes.
Bruce Stafford Tascott
I suggest Corey Worthington, Big Brother contestants and other vapid and objectionable youth be encouraged to sell both.
Paul Stevens Chatswood