Monday, January 19, 2009

The undercover anthropologist and the kidney market


Newsweek has published a profile of Nancy Scheper-Hughes, the Berkeley anthropologist whose methods of exposing illegal kidney sales have drawn ethical criticism.

4 comments:

Kathy said...

The criminal organ-trafficking market--like most black markets--is responding to a very real structural deficit in society: the lack of a workable, legal, ethical system for supplying replacement organs to those who need them. The Newsweek article suggests that in America alone 100,000 people are in need of a kidney replacement; each year, 5,000 to 8,000 legal kidneys are available. The need far outstrips the supply. As a society, we need to oppose and stop illegal and unethical organ trafficking, to be sure. We also need to do much, much more to figure out solutions to the organ supply problem.

Amy said...

One solution proposed by some bioethicists and transplant surgeons is that the U.S. create a *legal* market for kidneys from living donors. They argue that it would alleviate the kidney shortage and would be safer for donors than leaving it to the black market because there would be government oversight.

Dr. Arthur Matas, director of the renal transplant program at the U, is a proponent of this idea. He wrote in the British Medical Journal last June that the U.S. should consider establishing a system of government-funded compensation for kidney donors: "The compensation could be a fixed package of life insurance, long term health insurnace, and reimbursement for travel expenses and time out of work; it could involve a direct payment or a tax deduction."

What do folks think of that idea?

ivan said...

i'm from uganda 21 yrs. of age and in good health,non smoker and don't drink alcoholic beverages
and never tried prohibited drugs in my whole life
i wanted to sell my kidney due to my financial debts! you can e-mail me at ivannakedde@yahoo.com or you can call me at +256776347892 for serious buyers only pls.
my kidney costs 300,000 still negotiable!

ivan said...

i'm from Uganda 21 yrs. of age and in good health,non smoker and don't drink alcoholic beverages
and never tried prohibited drugs in my whole life
i wanted to sell my kidney due to my financial debts! you can e-mail me at ivannakedda@yahoo.com or you can call me at +256776347892 for serious buyers only pls.
my kidney costs 300,000 still negotiable!