you know it's a pr problem when npr has to cover it

excerpt:

VINCENT: Yeah, I never thought about purchasing an organ until my father got sick with cirrhosis of the liver. And I realized during that ordeal before he died, that the real crime in the country, and listening to Nancy talk about the whole system in the world, is that we do not pay for organs. And there is not a system set up to compensate people who are willing and able to donate organs for the people that are on these waiting lists.

CONAN: And what happened with your dad?

VINCENT: Well, the system is so bad, it's fragmented. I think Nancy touched on that. Depending where you are in the world, (unintelligible) and depending on how sick you are, you can wait an inordinate amount of time until you die, or you can sell everything, and pick up, and move to another state and hopefully get on another list, which is what they had to do in my case, my father's case. And we had looked into trying to purchase these things illegally, but you know, there's not really, like, a Web site you can go to and order these things online.

But it was so frustrating and horrible that there was this dichotomy about people who think that the moral stand to have these organs for sale, and while they're on their high horse saying that, people are dying.

CONAN: And as I understand it…

VINCENT: It doesn't make any sense.

...

Dr. SCHEPER-HUGHES: Liver is not that long. Liver is actually - but I know often it's so precarious, you need the liver very quickly, but I guess I have to ask you a very tough question. Why didn't someone in your family offer to give half a liver rather than buy it from a demolished person? No one is going to sell half a liver unless they're so desperate that they're under a kind of a death threat themselves.

VINCENT: Right. We were not told about that option and did not know about that until after my father had died. [and we never thought it up ourselves??? never occurred to any of them???? wow. - ed.]

Dr. SCHEPER-HUGHES: I'm very sorry to hear that.

VINCENT: There was an information disconnect, too, in terms of the family, and you know, from family members who are dealing with this, there's so much stress, of course…

Dr. SCHEPER-HUGHES: Right.

CONAN: Yeah.

VINCENT: …and frustration. But we were not even told of that option. I did not learn of it until after he had passed away.

CONAN: Vincent…

Dr. SCHEPER-HUGHES: Unfortunately, I should tell you there are ways that are very problematic, and I think you would agree. There was, until I closed it down, a Web site in China that would sell livers and - even from living people, but mostly from executed prisoners. And selling a half of your liver is not something that any righteous transplant surgeon would take part in, in taking a half of a liver. That's something that a very dear, close loved one who's totally screened and taken care of and protected afterwards. You don't just take a stranger and take a half a liver and send them back to a slum somewhere in the world.

damn straight.
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