Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 10:37:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: Siddharth Chatterjee <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu>
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
cc: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: Selling of Human Organs 




On Mon, 29 Apr 1996, zodiac wrote:

> At 12:29 AM 042996 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> >Brave souls with a web browser can read Brian Carnell's advocacy of the
> >sale of organs for transplant on his delightful web site, at
> >
> >        <http://www.net-link.net/~briand/>.
> 
> Thanks for the tip, Doug.
> 
> And thank YOU for that a-MAZ-ing web site, Comrade Carnell!
> 
> This infotaining web site opens with Comrade Jethro Carnell calling himself
> a "non-affiliated philosopher" -- and it gets better. He's also a "freelance
> writer!" To prove it, he notes: "I've published over 1,000 articles in
> newspapers and magazines. Some of the more interesting ones are here." We
> then get a grand total of THREE (plus a FAQ). That means 997 uninteresting
> ones, I suppose.
> 
> However, be not daunted! For the ones online are a fine representation of
> Comrade Carnell's talents. 
> 
>      ARTICLE ONE: Billed as the "complete coverage" of
>      some wanky controversey at a Michigan university 
>      newspaper over a strip club trying to run an ad in
>      it to attract the local frat boys. 
> 
>      ARTICLE TWO: Comrade Carnell attends a Michigan 
>      Militia rally and writes about it.
>  
>      ARTICLE THREE: Poor people should be able to sell 
>      their organs to the rich as a beautifully natural
>      part of capitalism and the wage system.
> 
> For those without a web browser, here's a snippet or two from the GIANT
> BRAIN of Comrade Jethro Carnell's organ sales article. Awesome penmanship,
> the way he uses a little kid and a cuddly stuffed tiger from a comic strip
> as a way of backing into a argument in favor of allowing the army of the
> unemployed to grab some means of subsistence by selling kidneys to the rich.
> Hire this man!
> 
>      "Calvin, a 25-year-old man with a wife and three kids,
>      needs money. Calvin wants to start his own business, but
>      needs $50,000 up front to get it started. Hobbes learns
>      of Calvin's predicament and approaches him with a most
>      unusual offer. 
> 
>      "Hobbes is a lawyer representing a wealthy client in 
>      desperate need of a kidney transplant. Hobbes' client will
>      give Calvin $50,000 if he will agree to donate one of his
>      kidneys. Calvin discusses his options with his wife and
>      decides he is willing to sell his kidney."
> 


The story above, although fictionalized, is actually a reality. In the
city of Bombay, there are nursing homes and hospitals who do these kind
of transplants. Very often the organ is taken from a poor person who
needs the money desperately and who is brought to the city from a
far-off town or village for the transplant by the agent who intermediates
between the poor donor and the rich acceptor (local or from one
of the oil-rich Gulf States). Last time I checked, the price paid to the
donor for a kidney was Rs. 50,000 ( approximately $1500) after the
agent and nursing home had taken their share. There are also occasional
(unconfirmed) reports of children's organs being exported to the
industrialized countries from Latin America and other poor parts of the
globe. One wonders what happens to the bodies of the street children
who are killed in places like Brazil by the police and para-military.

   


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