--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Several of us had the beginnings of a talk in chat > last week on black market > body parts and the upswing in people selling off > parts of their bodies. There > is going to be a "Talk of the Nation"/afternoon NPR > discussion on this today. > I think I might be glad I am working through that > time. It might be a > reality, but oh grrrr, there is enough heart ache in > families that help relatives > never mind those that feel it is the only thing they > have to sell.
I didn't know about that program, so missed it, but here are a few articles that detail some of the problems and ethical dilemmas of paid (but sometimes not - as in the case of executed Chinese prisoners) organ transplant, and the distribution of donated organs when the demand far outstrips the supply. South Africa, India, Brazil, Peru - and a Florida man to be tried for plotting "to sell human body parts for profit." For someone to be so desperate that they feel they must sell part of their own body is tragic; for someone to buy it is at best morally suspect; for doctors to perform it violates the precept of "first do no harm" - at least, IMO. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1134/n8_v107/21191220/p1/article.jhtml?term= "...The United States has a well-organized national distribution system for organs and a law, at least on the books, that requires hospitals to solicit the organs of dead people by requesting permission from their next of kin. Despite these efforts, nearly 50,000 people are currently on waiting lists for various organs. Worldwide, the medical community's persistent emphasis on the scarcity of organs has, if anything, exacerbated the desperate search for them. Faced with long waiting lists, candidates cross borders and enter unorthodox agreements for transplants--agreements often made without provision for vital follow-up care. The scarcity, however, may represent a need that can never be satisfied, for underlying it is the unprecedented possibility of extending life indefinitely via the organs of others--in other words, the denial and refusal of death... "...Ten years ago, Cohen says, townspeople responded with revulsion and alarm when they first learned, through newspapers, of kidney sales in the cities of Bombay and Madras. Today, some of the same people speak matter-of-factly about how it might be necessary to sell a "spare" organ. Some of them have told Cohen they can no longer complain about the fate of a dowryless daughter. "Haven't you got a spare kidney?" an unsympathetic neighbor is likely to respond... "...Before 1983, transplant surgeons in South Africa were not obligated by law to ask a family for its consent before harvesting organs and tissues from cadavers. And the 1983 Organ and Tissue Act allows "appropriate" officials to remove needed organs and tissues without consent when "reasonable attempts" to locate the potential donor's next of kin have failed. But as one state pathologist explained to me, some doctors and coroners use this authority to harvest prized organs immediately... "...Brazil recently passed a radical law designating the state as "owner" and arbiter of dead bodies. The law, in effect since January, makes all adults universal donors at death, unless they declare themselves "nondonors" by requesting new identity cards or drivers' licenses officially stamped, "I am not a donor for organs or tissues..." [Is this still the law, Alberto, or has it been changed? This was written in 1998.] "..."Compensated gifting"--whereby living donors (relatives included) are paid by recipients for organs--is accepted by some transplant surgeons as an ethically neutral practice... "...The line between "bought" and "gifted" organs is indeed fuzzy, and considerable pressure can be exerted on vulnerable family members to volunteer as donors. Dr. C, a transplant surgeon in me state of Bahia, told one of my research assistants of a young woman whose brother threatened to kill her if she refused to give him a kidney; the doctor had not known of the threat at the time of the transplant... "...Chinese-born Harry Wu, who heads the Laogai Research Foundation in California, was among the first to reveal the sale of executed prisoners' organs. He and other human rights activists claim the Chinese government sanctions the removal of organs from the bodies of at least 2,000 executed prisoners each year, and that the number is growing because the list of capital crimes in China has been expanded to accommodate the demand for organs. In 1995, task force leader David Rothman visited hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai, where he interviewed surgeons and administrators; he is among those convinced that what lies behind China's new anticrime campaign is a "thriving medical business that relies on prisoners' organs for raw materials." A recent FBI sting operation in New York City led to the arrest of two Chinese men allegedly offering to sell organs taken from executed Chinese prisoners... "...There's no denying that the movement toward commercialization is gaining ground in the United States. L.R. Cohen has proposed a "futures market" in cadaveric organs that would operate through contracts offered to the general public. These contracts would ensure that if organs from donors are successfully transplanted at the time of death, a substantial sum would be paid to the designated beneficiaries of the donors. And while the American Medical Association disapproves of payments to living donors, it does not frown on financial incentives for cadaveric organ donations under certain conditions..." http://cbsnews.cbs.com/stories/2002/02/11/48hours/printable328962.shtml "Inside a Peruvian operating room, a patient has just sold one of her kidneys for $18,000. The buyer is Alex Hall, a wealthy California businessman who took extraordinary steps to save his life. "If he had done this in the United States, Hall might be in jail, reports Correspondent Peter Van Sant. In a six-month investigation, 48 Hours has discovered a flourishing kidney marketplace never before revealed to the outside world. It’s based in Lima, Peru... "...Escobedo finds donors in desperately poor neighborhoods where an offer of thousands of dollars is seen as a godsend. One donor, Victor Gonzales, told 48 Hours, “I paid my debts, I cured my children. The money was the solution for my troubles.” "But the majority of donors, says Nancy Scheper-Hughes, director of Organs Watch, an international group that monitors the sale of human organs and the people who sell them, “have medical problems, deeply resent what they did, and often feel tricked.” After a two-month search, 48 Hours found Hall’s donor in a town in the Andes mountains. She would not let camera crews take her picture or use her real name. Through an interpreter, she told a 48 Hours producer “now she has a problem of her body. She does not feel psychologically well…she feels forgotten.” "Says Schepper-Hughes: “We don’t want to turn the poor people of the world into bags of spare parts that I or you, a person who has more resources or money, can simply prey upon. It’s morally unacceptable to do that...” "...One of Israel’s top kidney specialists, Friedlander says his patients tell him American hospitals have a “don’t ask, don’t tell “policy. His patients have simply pretended a donor is a friend or distant relative...Friedlander believes people like the man in Georgia should be allowed to sell a kidney in a fully regulated transplant center. He’s talking about a handful of hospitals in the world where price and quality of medical care would be tightly controlled..." This is a compilation of multiple stories/articles: http://www.organtx.org/ethics/sales/sales.htm Stem cell research with an eye to growing organs would greatly alleviate if not end the dearth of transplantable organs. Innovative techniques like the "printing" of sheets of cells, as posted last year, will speed up the process of creating adult-size organs. Debbi __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
