How much for your kidney?

Having just watched the long-awaited and fairly well acted X-Men: First Class, the Memsahib and meself visited the Festival Walk Broadway (one of the few big chain of Elec/Tech stores here not in the all-pervasive octopus-like grip of Li Ka Shing) and spied many-a gleaming Appley product. All these things are much cheaper now than even two or three years ago and, although Apple maintain that they are clean and green, it's no secret that this is down to Foxxconn's questionable labour practices: employee coercion, suicides, explosions and other horrors have been frequently reported. How much is too cheap?

Anyway, I 'needed' to buy an expensive cover for my new iPhone 4. This product is, of course, precious-ish and I want to keep it from acquiring scratches whilst in my pocket (I'd still like to know how that bloody happens). But I'm not sure I'd go as far in my desire to have such things as a youthinasia (not euthanasia -ha, that's my hilarious little GCSE jokel) wot sold his kidney for an i-Pad and iPhone. I cannot think of a reason to sell my kidney for anything, but then I've never been that desperate. A few years ago I was deeply moved when a friend donated one of his to an old military buddy. I probably speak for many when I say that I would most likely do the same for a loved one. Gratis.

The full BBC report says that you too can give your kidney to a worthy cause for a mere $3,392, even though the practice has been made illegal in China since 2007. Always ready to exploit an opportunity, kidney purchasers (apart from the Hannibal Lecter liver-loving kind) have been doing the world a great service in freeing the people of Nepal, India and other impoverished places of their unwanted kidneys and exchanging them with these vast sums of cash (as far as the recipients are concerned) -sometimes even as much as the lucky Chinese chap currently in the news. This link to a peculiar 'blog' (part-Russian/part-Indian) puts you in contact with unlucky Indians who have opted for cash over kidney.

Of course, trading human kidneys in China has been a long-profitable trade often sanctioned through the complicity of corrupt officials. This trade, however, is not limited to wealth-challenged countries, but also includes the far-flung reaches of Lancashire. 

So there you have it, some people think electronic products are better than their own urinary system. I suppose it's all a matter of values -it's legal in Iran! It's unlikely this trade will ever disappear altogether and some say the process should be legalised and monitored. Should we be allowed to do what we wish with our own bodies? What price could we put on our various parts? How much for one of your eyes, your lungs, your other choicest inner parts? Would cannibals be allowed to bid? Perhaps we should harvest them as a matter of course, hand out iPads and put the objectors in a Chinese jail...

Comments

[Richard Peters]

You're absolutely right, not all people on waiting lists are 'transplant tourists' –I was simply astonished that someone in China would want to lose a kidney for the sake of an iPad.

The rest of the blog was a short review about how some evaluate the cost of a kidney. Unfortunately, in some parts of the world when poverty is included in that evaluation, then it can turn into a nasty business indeed.

I really hope you are successful in your search.

Kidney cakes..?

[Jennifer Shahi]

It is very hard to judge until you have been in the position of a person in need of an organ transplant and please don't lump all people on waiting lists into the same category as 'transplant tourists'.

Having said that, you might be surprised at just how many people who are waiting transplants abhor the very idea of buying one, myself being in the last category. It is a despicable act. I found you blog looking for images of kidneys for a cake :)