Monday, March 05, 2007 - 6:23 pm

When you loved one is dying from kidney failure and the only thing you have at your dispose is money. What do you do? Purchase a kidney la... With the waiting time for kidney transplant at 7 years or more(KDF), it is not hard to imagine why. Some have proposed that we should be allowed to purchase organ(s) but the approval of such a policy will cause quite some social problems. The rich will definitely benefit from the deal. How are the organs obtained?

The need to shorten the waiting time for organs transplant is ever-present and a solution needs to be found to address this. A shorter waiting time would ultimately means patients have a higher chance of survival. Perhaps there is no solution to omit the need to wait but we can do something to shorten the waiting time. Personally, I feel we should legalise selling of organs. However, I am not suggesting an uncontrolled market for organs sale. I am suggeting that a government body controls and administers the sale of organs. The concept can work in a way where the government body administers the purchase of organs and the market price of organs should be fixed and transparent. The patients can opt to queue under this 'shorter' queue and buy for the organ(s) at the a fixed and transparent price. With the buyer and seller remaining anonymous to each other, perhaps would control the problem of the rich benefiting more for a legalised organ market. The rich who can afford not queuing can still resort to overseas for organ if they can't wait. If the price for organ(s) is kept affordable for most people, the not-so-rich can also benefit from this policy. Regardless rich or not-so-rich, such a policy should ensure the quality of transplant is done at a higher quality than purchasing organ(s) from overseas.

A problem arises when we ask ourselves where are we going to find the sellers? Given Singapore's 'vibrant' and 'wealthy' economy, I don't suppose many people will want to resort to selling organ. Unless, you are a materalistic person who sell his kidney and part of his liver to purchase a Merc. Chances are we will need to go overseas to look for seller. Unless the country legalise selling of organ, it will pose a diplomatic problem when a government body does the purchasing of the organ. (I dunno if it's still illegal when they fly to Singapore to do the selling, but it should still piss the other country off ba) Another possible problem is that wealthier countries may resort to this solution and this may escalate into a global organ buying race. The wealthier countries will still win(Unless UN does something about this).

Unless we have a ready pool of sellers, it may be necessary to look overseas. Looking overseas will cause quite some diplomatic problems but perhaps we can study this model and work something out.

KeL|eNeRD