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Kidneys for sale
What do you do when there is no work? When your children are dying, and you cannot afford to pay a doctor? In the Bagong Lupa slum area in the Filipino capital at least 150 men have chosen to sell one of their kidneys.
By John Einar Sandvand
Manila, Philippines
Marlene Maico was only two years old at the time. Then she fell sick. Very sick - with several diseases at the same time. Her life could only be saved if she was treated properly at a hospital.
- But I had no money, says the father, 31-year-old Satur Maico. The family lived in a shanty in Bagong Lupa, a large slum area close to the harbor in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.
Garbage and sewage are floating below the shanties. There is visible damage after a typhon hit a few months earlier, in which many of the families lost their homes. For many people it is a depressing life. There is no work. At least not every day. And when they get something to do, residents say, pay is a meager 3 to 6 dollars.
In this neighborhood a desparate Maico helplessly watched his daughter on the brink of death. Finally he chose what he considered to be his only alternative: He accepted that one of his two kidneys was removed from the body and transplanted into a man who was willing to pay.
- I received 70.000 pesos (1750 USD) for my kidney. That is the smallest amount anyone has been paid in this area. But I was desperate and did not have much to negotiate with, says Satur Maico.
Thus the daughter, who now is six years old, was admitted to hospital. The father could afford the 15.000 pesos fee. And she survived.
full article:
http://www.asiaobserver.com/Phillippines-story1.htmLinkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=11313.0
Topic: Filipino kidneys cheapest in world black market, says NGO (Read 1418 times)