January 19, 2009
It is Martin Luther King Day. He is a personal hero of mine. I can't watch his "I have a dream" speech without getting electric shivers and wet eyes. It is also one day before the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. The historical significance is not lost on any of us. Change is palpable. It is as if a stranglet has escaped the Large Hadron Collider and is spinning, infecting and consuming all rational matter. It's damned exciting. I made my satellite-high expectations clear for Mr. Obama's speech in my last blog. We're all waiting for the national policy, health care, and economic reforms to come. However, I'd like to appeal for one more change.
America must stop all illegal organ trafficking.
Not the change you expected me to appeal for? In Newsweek on January 10th, Janeen Interlandi reported in her story "Not Just Urban Legend" that human organ trafficking has made its way to the U.S. of A. It's a very informative article and I highly recommend you read it just for the horror factor.
I'm just going to cut right to the chase. There is severe tension in the system. As of 3:28 PM EST, there are 78, 197 people on the kidney transplant waiting list. In many parts of the U.S., the wait for a cadaveric kidney can be up to 10 years with a national median waiting time close to six years. The average patient on dialysis lives 5-7 years. Not very promising. Add to this the fact that a donation from a living person can extend the life of a transplanted kidney from 11 years to 19 years. This creates all the conditions for a thriving black market. Indeed, that's what happening. What's shocking is that some surgeons and transplant centers are pretending not to notice and do not ask questions a when a living donor emerges from thin air and doesn't speak English. I can tell you from personal experience that transplant centers review donor candidates rigorously. So, to turn a blind eye is deliberate. Why on earth would they do this? It is simple really; no one wants to see someone die waiting for an organ transplant.
The ethics here are complicated and not as black and white as they might appear. The basic question is...what would you do to stay alive? Especially if you have the means to pay. Is this fair to those that don't have the means? In contrast, if you are desperately poor and have no hope to improve the life of your family, what do you do? The world endlessly debates the right for people to treat their bodies as commodities without resolution. I must remind you that I am just at the beginning of this journey so I can't pretend to know the abject desperation a person must feel as their life dwindles away waiting for a transplant. I also live in a rich country. I have no idea what it is like to go hungry or have little hope for the future. However, I think it is important to take a stand based on my personal ethics.
Here it is: organ trafficking is evil and repugnant. I would rather die than deprive another person of their opportunity for life. I would rather die than exploit another who has no alternative means.
You see, I also have a dream. I have a dream that the world will wake up and the rich and poor will be treated equally. I have a dream that people will sign up to be donors in order to make sense of what could be senseless waste. I have a dream that healthy and generous heroes exist and will continue to give the gift of life. I have the dream that you will join me and sign up to be donor at http://www.donatelife.net/.
As for me, I will wait for my turn and hope to live.
Monday, January 19, 2009
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1 comment:
Sitting in a doc's office the other day, I was shocked to find an up-to-date Newsweek on the table. And I, in fact, read this exact article and thought about you. I wondered if you had read it and how you felt about it. This practice is indeed repugnant. I thought of the desperate and poverty stricken, dying from post-operative infections - having taken a huge risk for some hope of a brighter future, only to have that future dim amidst raging fever and finally complete demise. Very very sad. I could imagine children who are sacrificed by their parents and who are never whole again, who may not make it to adulthood. Sure there are urban myths surrounding this practice. But there are also sad truths. The doc who exposed this is to be commended for her bravery and commitment to morality.
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