Thursday, July 16, 2009

How Much Is Your Kidney , Child or Wife Worth?


There is an adage in Yoruba{Western Nigeria},
i will try as much as i can to do a translation.
It goes does "Ti o bani ti e po, wari ti eni ti
oju ti e lo". Translations
If you complain of how bad your situation is, you will
see cases worst than yours}.

This can aptly described a news report i saw earlier in
the day on my way to Lagos island, the shanties on the
lagoon and the living conditions of people got me worried
but it all disappeared when i saw a news item.

Read The Story Below And Understand

SARGODA, Pakistan (CNN) -- Mohammed Iqbal said
he has been told by his landlord to pay up on
debts and is left with a choice facing others in
this impoverished corner of Pakistan: Sell your
children or a kidney.

For the 50-year-old Iqbal, there is only one option.
Despite a law passed in late 2007 banning transplants
for money, he has decided to sell his kidney and has
already been for pre-operation tests. The sale will
net him between $1,100 and $1,600.

"What's incredible here is the law that bans the operation
he's going to go through came into place in 2007," said CNN's
Nic Robertson. "He's still able to go to a doctor, the doctors
given him advice, that's what he has to do under law... He's
going to make money out of it 100,000-150,000 rupees, and that
is absolutely illegal. Yet, in just a few days, he's expecting
to sell his kidney."

Iqbal was not alone in facing this difficult decision. Others in
Pakistan's rural heartland have opted to sell their kidneys.

One of them was Rab Nawas, who was deep in debt about a year ago
to his landlord after borrowing money to pay for his wedding and
to cover medical bills for his wife and six children. He, too,
faced the choice: sell his children, his wife or a kidney.

"I am helpless. Should I sell my children? Should I go sell my
children? So, it's better I sell my kidney. I had to return the
money," said Nawas, who now bears a foot-long scar that wraps
around from his back to his belly and is too weak to work the
same hours he could before.

People bearing the tell-tale scar of an organ removal in the
villages around the farm where Nawas works are not hard to find.
At one point, there were about 2,000 transplants a year --
with 1,500 of them going to what the government said were
so-called "transplant tourists."

The 2007 law was aimed at ending Pakistan's dubious status as
one of the world's leading organ bazaars. Nawas sold his kidney
after the law was passed and said the procedure was performed at
the Rawalpindi Kidney Center in the northern city of Rawalpindi.

When he went to the Rawalpindi center, after CNN asked him to
show where the procedure was done, he said a doctor told him
they did not have a record of his operation because they destroy
such records when a patient leaves.

The Rawalpindi clinic -- which prior to the law was a leading
user of purchased kidneys -- told CNN that it abides by the law
and does not get involved in deals between kidney donors and
recipients.

"Standing there it's hard for me to fully understand the courage
it took for him to make the journey. In this country, he has few
rights, and even less security," said CNN's Robertson.

Statistics
10%-20% kidneys originates from Pakistan
Kidney is sold for $200,000
Agents gets up to $50,000
Donor gets between $1,000-$2,000
Kidney is in high in U.S, Europe, UAE, Israel

In any condition thank God and hope for the best.




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