Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 21:23:47 +0800
From: Chris Gordan <egordan-AT-alpha1.curtin.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Kidneys


I'm jumping in,sorry if I'm missing something (I've been away and haven't been
following the list).
I've heard this story before, and if I remember correctly I think it turned out
to be some sort of hoax/joke that circulated on the net a few years ago.  I'd
read it in the context of a creative (style?), but paranoiac expression about the
concerns/fears etc people in general feel in the face of the concept of organ
markets.  It's possibly plausable to anyone who is in the habit of bowing down to
a transcendental concept of medical science/possibility, (it probably came out in
some trashy sf novel? maybe?).  On the other hand, to understand what and how
organ markets are actually developing, one might beg the question of how these
paranoiac divertions work to re-territorialize the issue (?) by personalizing it
in a kind of horror genre of/against the 'self' -- and ignoring the reality of
peoples who live within  an environment/a life where donating a kidney is always
an option in the drive to survive???! Could it be that it is just too difficult
to contemplate difference? The fear of what? Discovering the fact of inequality,
perhaps?

Chris

John Appleby wrote:

> On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Charles Gavette wrote:
>
> > If you had the money and needed an organ, how much nicer would it be to
> > take it without comitting murder?
>
> You would probably be unable to carry out the harvesting yourself and so
> would pay somebody else. If you were that somebody, would you not be more
> interested in not leaving witnesses?
>
> By the way, if you really think that these things were being stolen on
> demand, would there not be a problem with tissue copatibility? Perhaps the
> woman who drugs these people carries out the relevant tests beforehand?
>
> > Refresh yourselves in anatomy, philosophers. Remember that the adrenals are
> > located on top of the kidneys, and this makes it difficult to harvest
> > without a trauma response.
>
> Refresh yourself in reality Charles. Remember that it is going to be
> damned tricky to remove organs from a body which is submerged up to the
> neck in ice.
>
> I'm not saying that organs are never stolen, but you'd have to be pretty
> naive to believe a story like this.
>
> Interestingly enough, there was a report on an organ theft in yesterday's
> Guardian about the prosecution of two men in Samarkand for murdering an
> eight-old-girl and harvesting her liver, lungs, kidneys, and stomach.
>
> Now if you are in the organ harvesting business, would not this be the way
> to go? It seems much more efficient to me.
>
> But then again, perhaps the 'religious-medical-industrial complex' is
> using these kidney removal exercises to train medical students and the
> paramedics who rescue the victims. Is that paranoid enough for you?
>
> Regards
>
> John