Kidney-Selling Rabbi Busted; Should it be Legal to Sell Organs?
New Jersey and corruption go hand in hand. So no one was particularly caught by surprise when an FBI sting operation last week netted several dozen public officials for various money related crimes. Even five rabbis were caught up in money laundering. But it was the alleged actions of one of them that raised some eyebrows -- he was, according to the FBI, buying and selling kidneys.
Rabbi Levy Rosenbaum is accused of taking part in a worldwide scheme that would buy kidneys from poor people in such areas of the world as India, Africa, and Latin America, find matches for the kidneys, then sell them. And profits were huge. They would only pay the person $1,000 for the kidney, then resell it for upwards of $150,000. The operation is then performed in another country, where no questions are asked about where the kidney came from.
Selling organs is illegal in the United States. Here, if you need a kidney transplant, and you can't find a friend or relative who is a match, you have to go on the transplant waiting list. The average person waits five years for a new kidney, and many people don't make it. An estimated 10-20 people die every day waiting in vain for their new organ.
While you can't sell your kidney, you can donate it for free. There is a Web site called MatchingDonors.com, where you can register to give a kidney away to a total stranger. While giving away a kidney to someone you don't even know is certainly admirable, it does beg the question: If it's okay to give my kidney away, why is it so wrong to sell it?
One can make the argument that a person owns their organs. They should be able to do anything they want with them. And if someone wants to treat them as a commodity available to the highest bidder, why shouldn't they be allowed to? If you are struggling to put food on your family's table, and some rich person needs your kidney, why should you just give it to them? That person could give you enough to feed the family, and then some. Our country was built on the idea of freedom. Shouldn't we have freedom over our own organs?
Allowing people to sell their organs would also eliminate the black market, making the entire enterprise much more safe.
On the flip side, of course, is the potential for exploitation of the poor. People might be tempted to sell a kidney for the right price when money gets tight, but what next when that money is gone? And getting a transplant will become a rich man's game. Need a kidney? Just get out the checkbook. The poor and middle class will be stuck on the waiting list, hoping they don't die before a free kidney becomes available.
Putting aide all of the medical ethics questions, one goes down a slippery slope when taking on this issue. Are our organs a gift from God that enables us to survive this life, or are they a gift from God that allows us to make a few bucks?
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one day people will wake up and realize that no matter how noble and respected the profession their will be criminals among them. When the potential for great profit exists the greedy will gravitate to the business.
I would wager that there are more setups similar to this one and right now they are scrambling to be sure they don't have anything left to chance.
NO under no circumstances should anyone be allowed to buy or sell body parts. If you start it with cadavers you will see it quickly jump to live people. I wonder how many are going to be killed to harvest their organs.
I, and I believe most other committed Jews, take particular offense and are embarrassed that a so-called "rabbi" should be involved in such activities. Let us hope that Rosenbaum does not get off the hook by playing the "religious card". I for one would like to see him in jail for a long time and under the worst possible conditions . Moreover, and as a first step, I would be in favor of stripping this guy of his rabbinic title. He gives an undeservedly bad name to the vast majority of the leaders of the Jewish community.
What most people don't know is that organ procurement organizations and tissue banks can make up to $2 million off a donated whole body. This is a $20 billion a year business in the United States. If we were talking about copper and Bolivia, the issues would be crystal clear. The current system is unjust and immoral.
If you live in a state that has adopted the 2006 Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, it is presumed that you are an organ donor until they can find evidence of a contrary position. This includes hooking you up to life support systems even if you have an Advanced Healthcare Directive that says otherwise. They can keep your body alive until they can talk to your family to find out what your true intentions were.
Under this new Act, you have the right to refuse to participate in an organ harvesting procedure, but you must register your desire with a known organ registry. There is only one organ registry in operation that allows you to record your preferences, including allowing for the contingency that just compensation might become legal at some future date.
Check out www.DoNotTransplant.com to learn more about your rights under the law
As the death toll from the organ shortage mounts, public opinion will eventually support an organ market. Changes in public policy will then follow.
In the mean time, there is an already- legal way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- allocate donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die. UNOS, which manages the national organ allocation system, has the power to make this simple policy change. No legislative action is required.
Americans who want to donate their organs to other registered organ donors don't have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children , and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. Non-donors should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
As a recipient of two organs, I disagree with the idea of "ranking" recipients by whether they are donors or not. Donation is a huge deal and needs to be a gift freely given, without strings of any kind. How about "I'll only give to college graduates, or natural redheads, or Nazis?"
UNOS rules are set up to avoid judgments about the relative social or moral or financial "worth" of recipients. That is very important to keeping the transplant system here fair, and based on medical need. More people would die waiting if realtively healthy people were jumping to the "top" of the list. Waiting is frustrating -- I waited more than four years -- but it is often doable, particularly in the case of kidney transplant.
Purchasing or selling organs is a definite NO in my mind and heart, and certainly the procurement of organs by people other than donors is one of the most gutless heinous ways of making a living I can think of. Preying on the desperation and vulnerability of the people on both sides of the transplant is absolutely sickening.
Convincing more people to donate their organs is a noble and valuable cause. Convincing more people to avoid some of the causes of organ failure -- obesity -caused Type II diabetes, smoking , and excessive drinking come to mind
-- would also reduce the need for organ donations.
I hope our society can figure out how to get healthier, so the need for transplants drops. I also hope we continue to improve on transplant methoids, so that more people may live longer healthier lives.
That's a fantastic idea! I fully support that. How do we go about getting UNOS to make the change?
Your writer misuses the expression "begging the question." "To beg the question" means to give one statement as the reason for another one, when, in fact, the two statements are either equivalent or the first (the reason) somehow requires an assumption that the second is true.
Here's more info from wiki, this Rabbi uses guns to enforce!
Making it a business attracts people like these, who are
criminals, pretending to be pious citizens.
Rabbi Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn was alleged to have been conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for $160,000.[1] According to the complaint, Rosenbaum had said that he had been involved in the illegal sale of kidneys for 10 years. Acting US Attorney Ralph Marra said "His business was to entice vulnerable people to give up a kidney for $10,000 which he would turn around and sell for $160,000". Anthropologist and organ trade expert Nancy Scheper-Hughes claimed that she had informed the FBI that Rosenbaum was "a major figure" in international organ smuggling 7 years ago, and that many of Rosenbaum's donors had come from Eastern Europe. She also heard reports that Rosenbaum held donors at gunpoint to ensure they donated their organs.