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Singapore Considers Legalizing Human Organ Trading

John P.

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Human OrgansWell, here’s something you don’t see every day…

A sick but very wealthy man was caught lying about purchasing a kidney for a transplant, and then sentenced to one day in prison. Why the short sentence? Well, he wasn’t allowed to have the organ, and heck… he’s gonna die anyway!

But this brings up a serious question. Why the hell shouldn’t he be allowed to buy a spare organ from someone willing to sell one to him?

Reuters reported:

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore retail tycoon Tang Wee Sung was Wednesday jailed for two hours and fined S$17,000 ($11,850) for lying to get approval for a kidney transplant and for organ trading, the Straits Times newspaper said.

He had been sentenced to jail for a day, but was set free by the end of the business day, the paper said Thursday.

Tang, who stepped down as executive chairman of retail chain C.K. Tang after his conviction last week, was given a short sentence due to his “extreme ill health,” the Straits Times cited the sentencing judge as saying.

Tang’s lawyer had argued that his client suffers from a host of medical problems including kidney failure, heart disease, and sleep apnea, and might not survive in prison, the paper said.

Tang, 56, had earlier pleaded guilty to organ trading and lying that Indonesian Sulaiman Damanik was a relative, and was donating a kidney to Tang for free.

The transaction was never completed. Sulaiman was fined S$1,000 for organ trading and jailed for two weeks in June.

The controversial case was the subject of heated debate on the ethics of organ-trading in Singapore, and prompted the government of the wealthy city-state to announce it was studying the idea of legalizing compensation for organ donors.

(Reporting by Daryl Loo; Editing by David Fogarty)

Now, it’s that last part that interests me so much. Seriously, if I’ve got two outstanding healthy kidneys and I only need one, I’m absolutely allowed to give one away to a relative or a friend or whatever. So, this tells me that the government recognizes that they are mine to do with as I will. So, if I’ve got some guy offering to pay me $1 million for one of them, why the heck shouldn’t I be allowed to sell it?!?

Comments

  3. Honestly speaking, the government may be seeking a cut in the profits from organ trading… How about setting up an professional body to manage the organ trading and donors will not be allowed to know how much the recipients is paying… easy to come out with excuses ( ethics, moral ground, etc…) trust me , the government is just as much interested in $$$ as you are….

  4. I think it’s because it will end up being used to exploit poor people. Frankly, I wouldn’t give up a kidney even if someone paid a million dollars for it. Because a million dollars would be awesome to have, but I don’t need it to survive. That is the reason why almost all these cases involve villagers in poorer countries who are willing to give up their organs, these are people who are struggling to survive and feed their family. And the idea of a middleman profiting from this also is repulsive to me. If legalized, you will probably see a huge market opening up for sale of organs from people in developing countries to richer countries. I find this ethically wrong.