Kidney ‘donations’ big business

April 22, 2008  --  Got something to say?
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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has issued a new administrative order calling for the creation of a regulatory body to stop the abuse on the poor who are enticed to sell their organs for money. In his AO, Duque also said that payment as a pre-condition for kidney donation would be strictly prohibited as it should be made out of goodwill and as an act of philanthropy.

But he said the Board might still come up with a “gratuity package” for the organ donation in the form of health insurance, educational plan and livelihood assistance. Critics immediately slammed Duque’s plan saying this would only aggravate the problem of organs for sale.

The Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) assailed the AO which is supposed to curb an emerging “black market” of selling kidney and other organs to be used for transplants.

Gene Alzona Nisperos, HEAD secretary general, said the AO has a lot of “holes” that would lead virtual legalization of trade in organs unless plugged. “The lofty guiding principles and general policy statements contained in the DOH order are rendered inutile in the absence of clear-cut parameters and limits that should be set in very clear, unconditional terms to actually stop the trade of kidneys and other human organs. Otherwise, what are they really talking about?” asked Nisperos. Data from the Renal Disease Control Program of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute shows that for the year 2006, in 41.4 percent (286 of 690) of transplantation operations, the recipients were foreigners. Only 404 of 690 kidney transplant recipients were either pure Filipino or of Filipino descent. The rest were foreigners. Of this number, the biggest number of recipients—107 patients—came from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.

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Posted by News Team | Filed Under Philippine News 

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