“Why should anyone donate any part of his own body to anyone, except if the recipient is a beloved blood relative, a dear, dear friend or someone who is willing to pay for the part?”
by Ducky Paredes
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III should become more of a realist. He is not being one when he says that payment as a pre-condition for kidney donation should be strictly prohibited as such donations should be made out of goodwill and as an act of philanthropy. The idea is a fine one but it is also terribly impractical.
Why should anyone donate any part of his own body to anyone, except if the recipient is a beloved blood relative, a dear, dear friend or someone who is willing to pay for the part?
Of course, many kidneys are donated for the cash payment that can be expected from a grateful rich recipient. In fact, for each transplant, there are always several donors who are in line to give their kidney. These volunteer donors are constantly checked and the healthiest one is chosen on the day of the operation itself to give the recipient (and the donated kidney) the best chance of survival.
With the creation of the Philippine Board for Organ Donation and Transplantation which would oversee kidney donations and transplants, however, it is expected that what will happen will be to make donors and recipients part of a community that will continue to help each other even years after the operation. It has not been unheard of that a recipient will go out of his way to employ or find a job for his donor or the donor’s children or maybe offer the donor’s children a chance to finish their education.
Under the present system, most of the money is made by agents (mostly doctors, also) who find donors and convince them to donate their kidney. Of the total money that is paid for the kidney, only some 40% gets to the donor with the agent pocketing the bigger part of the funds. This is really what is wrong with the present business of kidney donations.
If the new board can come up with a scheme where kidney donors (who, one must accept, are giving up their kidney for the money that they can make out of the transaction) and recipients came come together without any middlemen or agents coming between them, then, we have a chance of showing the world how these transactions should be done.
Many of those in the new board are already members of a large community of donors and recipients who have been interacting with one another and who have been communicating even years after the transplant operation. Hopefully, they can make this work for the whole country.
Isn’t it only right that one ought to take on some of life’s burdens of someone who gave you a part of his body in order to allow one to live a few years more?
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Former President Fidel Ramos sent me a card with the scorecard of his game last December 31st at the Philippine Navy Golf Club.
In it, he scores a 78. FVR then asks: “Can Tiger Woods shoot his age in golf? Certainly not, since at age 32, he may have to wait 35 years before a score of, say, 67, will be within reach. Can you shoot your age in Golf? Or lower? (Even on a short Par 70?”
Of course, as one gets older, he has a better chance of shooting his age. That goes without saying. What this also means is that someone who can shoot his age also has a pretty good game since one’s skills also deteriorate as one ages.
Congrats to FVR and people his age who can still play a mean game of golf. Thursday, I played in a flight with former Congressman Frisco San Juan who is 86. He did not shoot his age; but then probably no one in that FPASGI San Miguel Sugar-Free Coffee Senior tournament of about 190 golfers shot their age, either.
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We have a letter from California on our column on the Worst SC Decision Ever: “With this recent turn of events in the political life of our country I officially declare myself homeless.
“That is, no country to come home to. I’m doing this to numb the pain of realizing later that the reality of my homeland being foreclosed upon by lender nations due to irresponsible actions of a few people in power.
And I do this with the notion the SC ruling will possibly embolden the executive branch to auction off our national patrimony with impunity knowing full well that there would be no one capable of effectively standing in their way. In my own limited view, the true spirit of justice and fairness (including the sense of delicadeza) has really flown off the window with this ruling and it really leaves me with a very heavy heart.
“Believe it or not, I still care so much for our country and despite my being away in this haven known as America, I still long to go back one day if only to see old friends like you.” — Efren T. Dayauon
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I sincerely believe, Efren, that there are young men just coming into adulthood who are willing to serve the country not to make themselves fabulously rich but with a view of moving this country forward. America, too, had its moments when the dirty trapols were in power and when everything moved only when grease money had been paid. Here, too, the time of the dirty politician will eventually come to an end. For this to happen faster, more people have to become aware that there are such evil men amongst us and that we ought to make sure that they are never given a chance to do their worst on the rest of us.
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hvp 03.28.08)
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