'Transplant tourism' on rise due to donor shortages

Stuff.co.nz ^ | 31 March 2007

[Admin Moderator]

The title you created "Selling organs...Should it be legalized?" was not the title.

Please do not alter titles and always provide a working link to any published material you wish to post.

[Lizavetta]

Do my eyes and ears deceive me, or are the SAME PEOPLE who promote hand over fist abortions for all the poor - because they are poor and can't afford a baby - actively DENYING the poor a moneymaking activity like selling body parts, which is something whereby they can actually make some money and perhaps become unpoor?

How is profiting off your body exploitation of the poor yet pushing abortions on women not exploitation of the poor?

[TheBethsterNH]

"Transplant Tourism"

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2995577

[TheBethsterNH]

Liz...i wondered the same thing, because while in school i used to go donate blood (hospitals would give donors 20 bucks a pint back then) and that money came in handy for gas and food on a very tight budget.

[newzjunkey]

The doctors, transports teams etc all profit off my death

Intriguing observation that is often overlooked.

[Paleo Conservative]

But what if there was no remaining kidney to live on for 11 years? Would that make a difference?

Requiring dialysis several times a week really decreases quality of life. It's probably worse than going through chemotherapy for cancer which my grandfather eventually had to do for the last five years of his life.

I was reading a couple of years ago about one of the men shot by Charles Whitman from the tower at the University of Texas in 1966. He was shot in the kidney. When the surgeons operated on him, they found out that he had only developed one functioning kidney, and that was the kidney that was shot. He died recently, and the cause of death was recorded as homicide.

[Born Conservative]

[traviskicks]

Like nearly all shortages, organ shortages exist because of governmental controls and regulations regarding their sale.

[Grizzled Bear]

I'm all for it. I have a uterus I don't plan to use. Any takers?

And I could accent your uterus with my ovaries....

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Could those be used "in their current locations?"

[1lawlady]

I'm fully aware of the dearth of kidneys in the U.S. I've been waiting 3 years and getting sicker by the day. None of my friends and family panned out to be eligible donors, so I'm waiting for a cadaver kidney. There are times when I get real discouraged, like the time when an alcoholic brother wanted to sell me his well used kidney. But most of the time I remain upbeat and count on my G_d to supply all my needs without having to travel to Timbuktu. I would go overseas, however, if I had the money.