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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Re-Post From Pinoy Ambisyoso

Human Kidneys For Sale Online

December 15th, 2008 by AMBO | 5 Comments | Filed in Philippine Issues 74 views

Last year, i’ve wrote an article regarding Filipinos engaged in selling kidneys to get money. The problem worsened and now selling kidneys and other organs are available for sale online. This report was published by Philippine Star the other day where Pinoy Ambisyoso was also mentioned in their article - read story here. They’ve reported that rampant kidney sellers couldn’t only be found in depressed areas in the country. Now the involvement of syndicates and kidney seller agents have found a new niche in marketing their product - the internet.

The National Kidney and Transplant Institute said that despite the ban of organ trafficking in the country, organ selling especially kidneys are still rampant. They also said that the numerous kidney-for-sale online advertisements are very alarming and a common problem not only in the Philippines, but worldwide.

One of the major reasons why people are engaging in organ selling is poverty. It is also noted in several countries like Cambodia and India.

Photo[1] Scene in the Philippines. Men who have donated their kidneys for money. Photo[2] Another scene in India. Women too are taking the risk. Can you spot what they have in common? Photos courtesy of www.kibaka.org and www.philstar.com

kidneydonateformoney

kidney-donors

The reports said, 536 foreigners came to the Philippines last year for kidney transplants because they knew Filipino people would sell their kidneys for money. Sad to say we’re being tagged as the Kidney For Sale Country. Fortunately, the case dropped down to 50% this year after the Department of Health imposition of the ban.

With the issue of online selling of kidneys, as a blogger, how can you help to combat this problem? You can also post this issue in your blog. Comments and opinions are welcome.

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Re-post from Pinoy Ambisyoso

Re-posted by: Mel Alarilla

6 comments:

Aihara Ramintessah Sanchez said...

good article. i would love to re-post this. we should face this alarming problem.lets be brave enough to define the root of the problem. poverty and lack of education.

princess maleiha bajunaid candao said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
princess maleiha bajunaid candao said...

Poverty is the main root cause of the problem. In Pilipino, we call this, "kapit sa patalim".

But the ball is in the hands of government agencies which are expected to monitor, stop and be totally firm in acting against this.

Another issue is the selling of corpses to hospitals for medical experiments.

The human body is sacred, whether
it is lifeless or not.

Mel Alarilla said...

Hi Aihara,
Thank you so much. This is also a repost but this problem keeps on lingering because of extreme poverty just as you say. Poor people must be protected against this kind of exploitation. Thanks for your visit and comments. God bless.

Mel Alarilla said...

Hi Bai Maleiha,
You are absolutely right. Nowhere is grinding poverty more prevalent than in your native Mindanao. Conflict there because of exploitation is so prevalent that people have nowhere else to go. Thanks for your visit and valuable comments. God bless.

beybes_08 said...

This is so sad. I've also heard about this a few years ago I think, on a documentary and it's really sad to think that some people actually have to sell organs just for money. What happens if that person who sold their kidney, ruins their only kidney? Then their the ones with the money problems now. How much do they get from selling an organ?