The tragedy of poverty

The latest technology in the wireless handsets business is a compact TV set right in your palm as in the specific model of Nokia N-92 series. One of the TV channels I can watch in my N-92 handset included the CNN. As a news editor, this enables me to monitor the international news even while I’m out of the office. Or in case I’m caught in traffic jams, I can just tune in to “My TV” right in the N-92 unit I have. During that one particular heavy traffic night on my way home last Tuesday while surfing through “My TV,” I caught the CNN World News special report on the Philippines.

It turned out to be about an alleged plan by the Philippine government to legalize the sale and even “export of kidneys” and other human organs for transplant to patients in other countries needing it. The CNN correspondent presented his special report of Filipino men living in slum areas somewhere in Metro Manila showing off surgery marks on their stomachs after having sold one of their kidneys for organ transplant. The CNN correspondent declared with authority that a healthy kidney fetches a “finder’s” fee of as much as $1,000. Since Philippine laws do not allow such kind of trade of human organs, the CNN correspondent claimed that it is being done under the guise of “donation” scheme and this has become a livelihood source for many poor Filipino families.

So on that premise, the CNN correspondent reported that Philippine government authorities were doing something to plug the loopholes in the law and legalize it altogether. In that almost five-minute CNN report, it included a brief interview of Dr. Reynaldo Lesaca who is in charge of the Human Organ Preservation Efforts (HOPE) in the government-run National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) confirming the supposed plans of the Philippine government to come up with such a law. The NKTI’s HOPE is the office that screens possible organ donors. It checks the motives for donating and the psychological conditions of donors, among other functions.

Since I have been closely on top of the news at the desk, never have I come across any such proposed bills in Congress or initiatives by the Executive Department on this reported plan to legalize trade of human organs for transplant. The closest news about kidney transplant was the one done successfully to ailing Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez who underwent such surgery last month and his donor was his own driver.

When we checked this story, an irate Dr.Lesaca cried foul to this spin made by the CNN correspondent who did this story about the lucrative kidneys-for-sale business in the Philippines and interviewed him about it two months ago. He complained as “misleading and erroneous” the portions of the interview that were aired after he himself watched and listened this CNN Special Report. What actually came out and aired by the CNN, Dr.Lesaca rued, appeared that the Philippine government is now legitimizing commercial kidney donation and with him as its resource person.

He immediately registered his strong protest in a letter to CNN anchor Hugh Rimington. Lesaca stated in his letter to the Atlanta-based international news network that this particular CNN Special Report did not only put him in bad light but also placed the (Human) Transplant Program of the Philippines “in jeopardy as far as the world is concerned.”

Dr.Lesaca disclosed, though, that the Philippine government is actually reviewing its policy on organ donation to ensure that the practice is regulated and the donors protected. This is being done by the Department of Health (DOH) tasked to review its existing Administrative Order (AO) on organ donation through public hearing and consultation with stakeholders. Under the existing AO, only 10 percent of all transplant procedures in a hospital are earmarked for foreign patients. Some private hospitals want this restriction lifted. But it’s being opposed by various health groups.

During that lengthy interview, Lesaca recalled he even explained to Rimington that the government and stakeholders are now in the process of “fine-tuning” the country’s policy on organ donation to prevent the procedure from being commercialized. It is believed that kidney transplantation had already been penetrated by syndicates that solicit donors in exchange for fees, ranging from P100,000 to P300,000. But in most cases, Lesaca noted that donors are being double-crossed, receiving less than the amount they have been promised.

This is actually not a new story because there have been similar news features made in the past by our local media of the same sad tales of impoverished Filipino folks having to sell one of their kidneys as a source of income. So that kind of story of poor men selling one of their kidneys to patients needing replacement of healthy kidney and who are willing and able to pay has become a sad fact of life in our country.

 Ironically, the same poor folks in the Philippines who sell their healthy kidneys are also the same low income Filipinos who suffer kidney problems but do not have access to needed dialysis because they cannot afford this medical treatment. This reminded me of the whereabouts of the 12 dialysis machines that Malacañang Clinic used to operate for indigent patients now that it had been closed down several months ago by the Arroyo administration. Just asking.

Poverty in our country has so many faces, including the one dramatically highlighted by 11-year old Marianeth Amper of Davao City. The poor girl reportedly committed suicide out of despair on Nov.2 based on her written letter where she expressed such sentiments. Her young mind thought she could escape poverty by ending her life. With seven children, her father reportedly has also kidney problems and is jobless. Whether rich or poor, we all have two kidneys. At least, we can live even with one kidney only.

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