Friday, August 29, 2008

Organ Trading in Singapore is Illegal

Organ trading is an illegal business in Singapore. The only organ donation that is legal is only when the donor and patient can show proofs of relation. This is to prevent the exploitation of trading in organs for money especially within poor folks who have the disadvantage of making informed choices.

A recent case involving Singapore's retail magnate had just been heard. Mr Tang, falsely declared that the donor of the kidney was a relative was charged in Singapore's first organ trading case. In Singapore such an arrangement is illegal and the Government usually takes action for such cases to a maximum of 3 years in jail and a fine.

Two Indonesians were sentenced to jailed and fined for their actions to sell one of their kidneys to Mr Tang, for US$16,000. This case was alerted when the sale did not go through when Toni (the donor) had donated his kidney instead to another Indonesian patient before the operation took place. He was paid more than what was offered by Mr Tang. As such it led to some fishy business for such investigations.

There are many Singaporeans who are waiting for kidneys, and there are not many to go around, frankly. What should these people do? In a desperate move to survive, would you consider it against the law? Just like a poor begger who has no food to eat and ends up stealing food from a shop, actually meant no harm. It is all because of the survival instincts. We are humans. The fittest survives, the weakest are sometimes challenged.

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