Showing posts with label difficult circumstances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label difficult circumstances. Show all posts

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Farmers in India petition to be allowed to sell organs

I (would like to) assume that this story from India only concerns sale of live kidneys for transplantation, but it isn't completely clear to me, given the mention of suicides due to debt:

Allow us to sell our organs to repay our debts, farmers tell PM

"Unable to repay bank loans and to highlight their miserable plight, a group of farmers from Haryana have sought permission from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allow them to sell their vital organs.

"The farmers' group who held a rally at Kurukshetra on Monday under the aegis of Bharat Kisan Union (Tikait), held placards displaying a rate list of their organs.

"Later, 33 farmers handed over a letter to the Kurukshetra Tehsildar to be forwarded to the Prime Minister, BKU's state unit chief Gurnam Singh said on Tuesday.

"We are left with no other option, but to sell our vital organs. Over 20,000 farmers have ended their lives across the country due to debt burden. At least, selling our organs would enable us to repay the debt and live for a few years more and feed our families," he said."

HT: Sangram Kadam

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We'll be traveling in India in the coming days, so at least some of my blog posts will be from inventory...

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Undocumented immigrants in need of transplants

Some people are in really difficult circumstances:
Hunger strikers seek transplants for undocumented immigrants
"Demanding access to organ transplant procedures for undocumented immigrants, a group of hunger strikers set up camp outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Sunday."

Here's the story as of yesterday:
Hunger Strike Continues For Undocumented Immigrants Needing Organ Transplants

 My understanding is that Northwestern and other transplant centers don't in fact take immigration status into account, but that undocumented immigrants may evaluate poorly on the ability to sustain the daily immunosuppressive drug treatments that follow transplantation. (See this earlier post on the consequences of medicare's 3 year payment limit on immunosuppresive drugs.)