What can you say about the so-called sale or trafficking of human organs?

Ricardo Tolentino, Laoag City: Organ trafficking is a clear manifestation of how rich nations can buy everything - from body parts of a person to the dignity of a Third World country.

Ching Gaspar, Laoag City: If organ trafficking is tolerated, I’m afraid the incidence of kidnapping and murder may triple. Kidnappers may start targetting anybody not to go after ransom money but after the organs of the victims.

Inhuman, barbaric

Leonard Villa, Batac City: Organ trafficking is inhuman, barbaric, immoral and ungodly. Those who are engaged in this dastardly act are aware of this but they continue doing it for practical reasons.

Adrian Catral, Las Piñas City: It’s a deplorable act if one sells his/her organ for money. I am afraid pati kaluluwa ibebenta na rin at mukhang hindi malayong mangyari ito.

Kat Gatus, Malabon City: What a pity to our poor countrymen who are forced to sell their organs just for some money.

Ignacio Anacta, Metro Manila: Trafficking of human organs is the lowest form of business humans have concocted. It’s a shame, really, as we humans are considered the highest form of animal created by God.

Miguelito Herrera, Cabanatuan City: This has become prevalent especially in Third World countries. I still believe that it is immoral for human organs to be bought and sold. Only the moneyed people will benefit, while those who do not have money will just die.

Big business

Louella Brown, Baguio City: The sale and trafficking of human organs is fast becoming big business.

Due to poverty

Larry Parroco, Quezon City: Extreme poverty has made people resort to selling their organs. Dito makikita na malakas talaga ang kinang ng pera.

Roger Caravana, Bulacan: The so-called sale or trafficking of human organs could be equated to the extreme desperation of the people due to poverty.

Alexander Raquepo, Ilocos Sur: This is outrageous and must be stopped. I suggest that the government make a simple problem analysis and identify the root cause. But I am pretty sure that poverty will come out as the root cause. Whatever happened to the government’s anti-poverty programs?

Jose Fabello Jr., Cagayan de Oro City: For a taste of the good life, many poor Filipinos will sell anything for money, including their organs.

Lucas Banzon Madamba, Laguna: Poverty is the primary cause of organ sale. Poverty is like a dragon that gradually consumes the economy so that even organs are being sold.

Elmo Cruz, Manila: Unless the government attends to the poverty problem, the sale or trafficking of human organs and other immoral and criminal acts would be difficult to control. There is no law that can prevent people with empty stomachs from seeking ways to address their hunger, either through good or evil means.

Joe Nacilla, Las Piñas City: Due to poverty, some people are forced to engage in trafficking or selling of human organs. This will continue if the government cannot or refuses to address this reality. If our country is impoverished due to our centralized form of government, then, we have to seriously study and change it immediately.

Rico Fabello, Parañaque City: It’s a desperate way among the poor to get a fresh start.

Desuel Pardo, Mandaluyong City: Donating blood or organs to save other lives is a noble act but if this becomes a trade, then it runs against the laws of God and of mankind. However, hungry people who have nothing to eat forget about this. To address the issue, authorities must uplift the poor from poverty to prevent them from engaging in such kind of trade.

Prayers for sellers

Ed Gulmatico, United Arab Emirates: The most that sensible “but helpless” Filipinos can do is to offer prayers for the people who sold their organs to still enjoy a long life.

Illegal act

Dennis Montealto, Mandaluyong City: Anything that is illegal should be stopped.

Cris Rivera, Rizal: There must be a particular law that will forbid a surgeon to perform the organ-extracting operation, if the purpose of which is to sell the same.

With doctors’ consent

Carmela Ramento, Cagayan de Oro City: It is quite disheartening to learn that human organs are now the object of commerce. More so the thought of doctors being actively involved in the trade.

Liberalize the trade

Richard Decena, Quezon City: Mga kapit sa patalim ang karamihan sa mga nagbebenta ng kanilang laman-loob. Sana i-legalize na lang ang organ trafficking, nang sa ganun ay mawala na ang mga middleman na lalo pang nagpapagulo sa sitwasyon.

J.C. Punongbayan, Quezon City: What is there to say? It is a fact of life among the destitute and hopeless Filipinos especially those illegal settlers. This is the easiest means available to them to survive even only for a few months. The government is tolerating it by turning a blind eye to this ungodly and inhuman practice. Kidney donations have grown in recent decades, but the lines of patients awaiting transplantation have grown even faster. These patients die as they wait in vain. Undeniably, the blanket ban on kidney trade, along with the repugnance associated with it, has contributed to this. Altruism can only go so far. Instead, liberalizing the kidney market, with ample regulations, will not only close the gap between demand and supply but will also eliminate the existing black market, which has been a perfect avenue for the exploitation of the poor.

Unmindful to danger

Raymar Gurrea, Bacolod City: It saddens me that there are people out there who resort to selling their organs (kidney, liver and the like) just to have some money. Apparently, they do not realize the danger that it poses to them.

Death penalty for advocates

Elizabeth Oximer, Negros Occident:aI am for imposing the death penalty on those who coerce people to sell their organs so they could escape poverty. l

Dr. Jose Balcanao, Benguet: The sale or trafficking of human organs has been unabated because it has been a lucrative business between the untouchables and the poor victims. It is an aggravated crime against persons and, therefore, must be subject to capital punishment.

Prohibit foreigners

Christopher Magsila, Quezon City: The Senate must legislate a bill that would prohibit foreigners from engaging in organ trafficking.

Third World symptoms

Felix Ramento, USA: Organ trafficking is a clear sign that the nation is in deep financial crisis, with many people experiencing extreme poverty and being forced to sell their organs.

Manuel Abejero, Pangasinan: Trafficking of human organs and prostitution are symptoms of social maladies brought about by poverty and aggravated by immorality, poor or lack of education, and corruption in government. The usual answer of prostitutes and human organ sellers to interviewers’ question of “Bakit mo ito ginawa o nagawa?” is, “Dahil sa sobrang kahirapan at kawalang pag-asa mula sa mga opisyal na corrupt”. Our corrupt officials’ immediate cure to this social malady is a pain reliever that only lasts for three hours. In fact, some of them are “sukis” of establishments offering escort services. Keana Reeves is a good resource person when it comes to this trade.

Not bad if…

Elpidio Que, Vigan: There’s nothing in the Bible that says that man is created with two kidneys for him to sell the other one. Poverty compels some to do so, however. This is inhuman - an act that violates God’s desire to keep our body in tiptop condition. However, if the organs that will be transplanted would come from a dying man who wants to donate or sell his body parts, I believe that when he “knocks, knocks, knocks on heaven’s door, ” he would be welcomed by St. Peter.

Better option still

J.R. Mondonedo Jr., Parañaque City: This is better than selling one’s soul to Satan, right? It only shows that the desperate poor people here in the Philippines are only doing it because of poverty. It’s a shame to this country and government because the flourishing trade only shows that poor people will do anything just to survive here. But look at the bright side, at least they are helping other people who need their organs.

Something fishy

Deo Durante, Camarines Sur: Now I am convinced that the rumors are true, with the recent news on the human organ selling business that is becoming more and more uncontrollable. There is something fishy about this practice of selling human organs, the reason why it hasn’t been put to a stop all this time.

Trade thrives via the black market

Ruben Viray, Antipolo City: The sale or trafficking of human organs is not tolerated and is in fact considered an illegal practice but continues to flourish worldwide. I believe this kind of trade is done through the black market and negotiated mostly by unscrupulous persons and medical practitioners who probably keep the money to themselves.

New outlook

Robert Young Jr., San Juan: Donating a body part is the best gift someone can give to another. We laud blood donors but many are conservative when it comes to organ donations just because thousands die each year because of ignorance on organ donation. If it’s all right to give blood, then why oppose human organ donation? It’s about time we too a new look on this matter. I am an organ donor. Sign up and be one.

‘Feed them with bread’

Germi Sison, Cabanatuan City: Jesus Christ fed 5,000 in the desert with food not only for their soul but for their hungry stomachs as well. It is ironic that Philippine Christian churches are always into lavish church celebrations and building resplendent houses of worship in the midst of the pitiful conditions of the poor who are surviving through evil means, including the selling and trafficking of human organs. If Christian churches cannot urge the government to address the poverty problem, then they have to feed the hungry millions with bread instead. Once people are converted to spiritual life, God will give them life that is full.

Leading provider

Ishmael Calata, Parañaque City: Human organs - such as the heart, the eye lens and kidneys - used to be donated by newly deceased persons who were organ donors. In B.C. or A.D. history, there are mentions, whether apocryphal or true, of organs that were transplanted from a dead body to a living person such as that Catholic historical account in the third century where Saints Cosmos and Damian connected a leg of a black man to the body of a white man. It was only in recent history that stories of organs for sale emerged in our consciousness and this started in poor countries. In these nations, it has become a big business activity of unscrupulous traders who do their nefarious thing under the protection of corrupt individuals in the countries where they operate. Now, the Philippines is mentioned as among the biggest providers of trafficked human organs, in the company of China, India, Romania, Egypt and Brazil. Truly, there is a need to come out with legislation to put an end to this activity but it seems that in the countries where trafficking is outlawed, the trade has gone underground and organ smuggling has become a more lucrative business. This must be stopped ASAP.

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