The "Organ Industry" by Kimberly Koerber-Bauer-Koerber

This is a picture of a beautiful Chinese red "'paper doll"as defined
by the Chinese culture.

Macabre organ music, somewhat sinister, is playing in the background at this writing.  This organ music, being played on an old Wurlitzer organ, at times has lifts and crescendos, which could coincide with the Human Organ Transplant industry in general, and how Ohio has been affected by it.  

In Ohio, we have to put up with Ohio's Driver's Licenses being amended because people in general are supposed to be organ donors.  We are supposed to be human organ donors as listed on the back of Ohio Driver's licenses as a matter of rote, because this is another Social Policy change that needs to be made.


China uses the organs of inmates; someone who appears to be of the inmate population wants organ donors to be any victim chosen or picked for this who happens to have a valid Ohio Driver's License. This is a huge policy problem that needs to be amended.  The state of Minnesota and other states are similar. 
   
"Beijing does not reveal how many people it executes, but analysts estimate as many as 8,000 people are killed each year. Reports of Chinese authorities removing organs from executed prisoners have been circulating since the mid-1980s, when the development of a drug called Cyclosoporine-A made transplants a newly viable option for patients.  Rumours of problems with follow-up care and patients dying within one to two years of returning from China have failed to stem the tide.  A single broker has helped more than a hundred Japanese people go to China for transplants since 2004 and the trade is growing. Official figures almost surely underestimate the numbers of people, many of whom fly without government knowledge. Mr Hokamura says his family is so pleased that his daughter has put his experience on the internet. In her blog she says she feels sorry for others to have to wait years for transplants and provides a link to a support centre in Shanghai. "Other people should know about this," she writes." Ref. 1.


"Brazil has made a new law to try to stop the trade in human organs. But this law is different. It does not ban the sale of organs: instead it says that every adult Brazilian becomes an organ donor when they die, unless they get a special identity card that says they are not a donor. The idea behind this law is that there will be many organs available for transplant and so nobody will need to buy one. In the United States, the American Medical Association (AMA) is trying to start a project for selling human organs. The AMA believes that most Americans will not donate their organs (except, perhaps, to people in their family) unless they are paid. The AMA's idea is that people can sign a contract while they are alive, promising that their organs can be transplanted when they die. In Brazil, it is common to buy and sell kidneys, although people try to make it look less commercial.  Donors in India are usually poor people who sell one of their kidneys while they are still alive. The only country that still transplants organs from executed prisoners is China."  Ref 2. 

Rochester, Minnesota, the home of the Mayo Clinic has "Transplant Hospitality Houses", for people awaiting organs and those staying with them to look after them.  While there in Rochester, I talked to a Catholic nun, who volunteers at the "Hospitality Transplant Houses" and she described her role there.  "They eat well", she said, and live in a small area with a bathroom, a room, and all of the amenities that, including free shuttle service to Mayo Clinic as needed.  She said that she has volunteered with the recipients for about 15 years and would prefer that her name not be used. The recipients and the hospital have a good relationship and the recipients all have heavy medical insurance to cover all of their expenses.  She, from the Catholic Church said that she saw people come and go, and noticed that some of the recipients are there longer than others.  Also, while there, I talked to a young man who was the friend of a man who received a kidney transplant.  He was a personable young man and said that he was there with a man who he considered to be his friend.  This friend paid all of his expenses, and was recuperating at that time.  This man, who he, the younger man knew for over 10 years was then walking around using a walker and in a hospital gown.  The Transplant Hospitality houses function as this also - aftercare.  If complications arise, the recipients are taken to the hospital immediately no matter what time it is and are there to be observed regularly for progress.  Unfortunately, recipients of organs have a rejection rate regardless of the organ being perfect for them and well matched in all ways.  At times, we were told that a donor could have to get several organs because the first one does not 'take'.

Social policy analysts "could have" a problem with the organ transplant industry for this reason, and label it a "killing cult".  
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References

1.  "Japan's rich buy organs from executed Chinese prisoners", by Clifford Coonan in Beijing and David McNeill in Tokyo - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japans-rich-buy-organs-from-executed-chinese-prisoners-470719.html

2.  The article entitled "The New Cannibalism" by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, on which this was based, appeared in the April 1998 issue of the New Internationalist. http://www.newint.org/easier-english/orgsale.html