Categories: uncategorized
Date: 04 December 2007 20:22:34
Today I have been watching a programme on BBC Wales about a guy, called Mark Schofield, who is trying to buy a kidney. He is undergoing dialysis almost every day but can't find a kidney in the UK. To make things harder he has a rare blood type that makes finding a match even less likely. As a last resort he has decided to buy one from the Phillipines.
The programme followed him on his journey and also showed the effects upon the donors who sell their kidneys. Little of the £15000 that a kidney costs sees its way back to the donor; there are too many middlemen taking their cut. I will admit that I'm struggling with this dilemma. I don't believe that trading in organs is a thing that we, as a society, should condone but I understand that for people suffering in this way they may have no other option.
Yes, he is lucky that he can afford to spend this sort of money. Many of us would not be in such a position. I can hear people screaming and shouting now against this. "It's just another rich capitalist pig mistreating the poor". Yet I beleive that if I was in his situation then I would be willing to do the same thing. Mark is only 43/44 years old, the same age as I am. He is a former European Surf Champion. He has a young family and wants to see them grow up. Wouldn't we if we were in that situation? Can you honestly say that you wouldn't be willing to do the same?
I must say that I don't know Mark; I've never met or spoken to him but I know people who have dealt with him through work. They all have only good things to say about him. Even a friend of mine, who is also a deacon and lay preacher, supports what Mark is doing.
At the end of the programme there was some good news. The NHS has put him forward for a new treatment, that had been offered in the Phillipines, in the UK. He maybe in a position to have a second transplant using a family members kidney.
The unhappy thing in all this is that transplants in the UK are not easy to come by. There are insufficient donors. Maybe the BMA are right in saying that we should assume implied consent and people who truly object on religious/moral grounds can opt out. Something definitely needs to change in the way that this is dealt with.
There are people in this worlds who will exploit the poor, and the sick, in order to make money. No we shouldn't support the trade in organs but we need to find a way to deal with things sensibly. I admire mark for being able to bring this out into the open. He knows that for as many who support his actions, there will be an equal number who despise him. Even some Christians I know will be against him.
Yet he does value life, maybe his own most of all, but I can't blame him for fighting to hold onto it. I'd rather see him go down fighting that just giving up and losing all hope.
For Mark and his family I say good luck. You are in my prayers and thoughts.