by Ibrahim Rashid Hassan
Saturday, March 06, 2010
It is a truth universally accepted that a person who is in possession of a good wealth and living in one of the developed countries must be in want of a long life, and organ failure is an obstacle to that dearly held dream of living a healthy life to reach that long life span.
Most organ recipients are from rich or well to do families and are in possession of the required resources to pay for the astronomical price of the organ transplant operations, however with or with out money there is a long waiting list of patients who are in need of an organ transplant and, hence, it takes three to four years to receive the right organ provided a match is found within that range. This high demand has created new un-ethical black market in which human body parts are solicited and sold, often with the help of shady hospital staff.
In places like India which is the human Organ bazaar of the world, the donors do not have a choice in their determination to escape from chronic poverty and are forced to sale one of their kidney so as to provide for their families. Depending on the situation a recipient can receive a good price for his donation if he is under no pressure to do so, however if the need is urgent the donor can be tricked to donate his organs with very little money.
China is another source of illegal organ transplant; the Chinese prisoners who are executed have their organs removed upon death. According to Human right Asia, about 2,000 – 3000 organs a year are cut from the bodies of executed prisoners.
It has been reported recently in Addis-Ababa that a Somali woman; Ms. Kaltun Sheikh Abdi from Puntland Somalia was married to a Somali man from Holland six months ago, arrangements were made by intermediaries between the man and his would be wife’s family, and money were paid to her parents. The innocent girl was later brought to Addis-Ababa where she met the said Husband and the lady was immediately flown to schiphol Airport in Holland, the husband proposed that she should under go medical check up as it’s required to receive residency visa, kaltun was later taken to a hospital in which the husband accompanied her and acted as translator, shortly after, he left the wife and that was his last time to be seen.
From their Kaltun was injected with anesthesia and lost consciousness, in which period she was operation on and the illegal surgeon remove her uterus, ovaries and fallopian tube, she also lost her two kidneys in which they were replaced with the kidneys of a ninety year old woman. After several days Kaltun was discovered by a Somali Nurse who works in that hospital and in turn alerted the Somali Diaspora in that country, investigation was done but the people who committed the act could not be found. The Somali community in the said country paid for her return ticket back to Addis-Ababa and within a couple of days Kaltun died from complication of organ transplant surgery, after she was bed and wheelchair bound for two months.
There are also cases in Western Europe in which Somali women who visited gaenocologits for routine medical check-up were recommended for an urgent surgery in which time the ovaries were stolen from this innocent women, many are un-aware of it until they try to conceive a baby.
Further evidence of the increasing trade in human body parts in Somalia is evidenced by the high rate of stolen children being reported across Puntalnd and Somali-land and young babies found dead in Hergeisa with their organs removed. In late February the Somali news networks like; VOA Somali Service and BBC Somali service have been reporting; a child stolen from a family in Puntland was found with a Russian man staying in Somali-Land with intention to transport the young child to Eastern Europe, his intention is clear…….. For any person with common sense.
In 1992 after the collapse of the central government in Somalia, 900 children under the age of ten were stolen from Mogadishu mostly the street children with no families to miss them and were shipped to Europe from the docks of the capital, no one has heard where they were taken to or what happened to them, but it’s acknowledged by all who know this truth and incident that the children were trafficked to provide human body parts and in the process killed and disposed off.
30 of the above 900 kids were found and rescued in Turin Italy, in November 1992, they were found cramped in the under belly of an Italian flagged ship in a serious health condition. Many other acts like this is believed to have gone on for many years and in the absence of strong Central government such act will continue to thrive in Somalia.
The medical art of transplant surgery has become very popular; such dubious trade stems from our innate desire for longevity, more surprisingly the biggest participants in the trade are unscrupulous western pharmaceutical companies seeking to profit from marketing their products that have been derived from the procurement of human body parts.
The problem raises complex ethical questions as to how far is enough in human’s effort to strive towards longevity?
The Author Ibrahim Rashid Hassan is a freelance writer and can be reached on:
Email: [email protected]