Stop that kidney business!

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

First we were exporting labor. Now we are selling parts of our people. This was confirmed by the revelation that, for several years now, Filipinos have been selling their kidneys to foreigners needing transplants, and that our government has been sanctioning this shocking practice.

The extent of this commerce involving human parts was revealed very recently when the group called the Philippine Society of Nephrologists registered its protests against the issuance of Administrative Order No. 2004 that allows foreigners to procure organs from local donors. It has been noted with alarm by the group that within a few months, hundreds have already “donated” kidneys to foreign patients in exchange for some gratuity, usually between P100,000 to P200,000.

What is appalling is that these “donors” are generally very poor people who agree to give a part of their body because they need the money, not only to meet the needs of their families, but also to help relatives, some of them, ironically, also ailing.

Since the disclosure about the kidney “donations” and the protests of the PSN, as well as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and also doctors and civic leaders, media has been focusing on the issue and have searched out several of these “donors”.

Their stories were similar: They had to do it because it was a means of making some needed money. They even showed the identical scars left by the operations, long curving cuts by their sides, all telling a sad story of how poverty and desperation could drive a human being to part with a healthy organ, still needed by his own body. Sadly, too, most of them admit that their health and stamina have changed since, that their work is affected because they feel weaker and get tired easily.

Whoever thought of, and dared to issue Administrative Order No. 0004 should be made responsible for this looting of human bodies. The fact that some unscrupulous doctors and go-betweens are also believed to be taking advantage of the often unlettered “donors” is another aspect that the PSN and its supporters should crack down on.*