American vampire

November 12, 2007

When Malaka, an Indian tsunami refugee, agreed to sell her kidney, the organ broker told her she would receive $3,500. But after the operation, he gave her only $700 – for an organ that a wealthy foreigner likely paid $40,000.

“She got what she deserved,” the broker told the National Geographic Channel in an “Explorer” episode, “Inside the Body Trade,” that airs tonight. Later, when Malaka’s son’s kidneys were failing, the doctor told her, “You gave away your kidney. Now your child needs a kidney. Who will give it to him?”

While free-market types have talked up Transplant Tourism as a nifty way for the world’s poor to barter their way out of poverty, National Geographic Channel reporter Lisa Ling told me that after visiting organ donors from two villages in India – one known as Kidneyville – “the overwhelming majority of them did not get the money they were promised.” (San Francisco Chronicle)