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Time for healthy S'poreans to come forward and donate kidneys (ST Online Forum, Jan 31)

I WAS horrified to read the report, 'Kidney scam: Hospitals raided' (ST, Jan 29).

The report said that the authorities are probing an organ sale gang which had conducted 500 transplants in India.

It appears that poor labourers sell their kidneys to wealthy clients. A Singaporean friend of mine went to India to get an organ transplant because there was no 'waiting for a donor' and it was not even cheap. He returned home after the transplant, only to die two weeks later of kidney failure.

The Indian Health Minister, Mr Anbumani Ramadoss, is calling for a national organ transplant programme as it would reduce demand for illegal operations. At present, only close relatives are allowed to donate organs, after clearance by a government appointed committee.

In Singapore, we have in place the 'opt out/opt in' system. The National Kidney Foundation is doing a fine job for kidney patients. But it is time for healthy Singaporeans to come forward to donate one of their kidneys to those who need it. I know of a kidney patient who had a kidney transplant about 20 years ago, and when I last met him in 1997, he was lively and active.

Yes, Singaporeans are pretty impatient. They are not willing to wait for a donor kidney. So, they go overseas to seek and get a kidney transplant. I think this is foolhardy.


It just keeps getting better and better. This is truly one of the stupidest letters I have ever seen in any newspaper, excepting maybe the one about dogs I remember covering some months back. Here is someone actually suggesting that a perfectly healthy individual should check into a hospital one fine day, undergo painful major surgery to have one kidney removed, and have the kidney placed within someone else - a total stranger - who needs a working kidney. Completely without any other reason than helping out a - emphasis here - total stranger.

Our writer has obviously not given any serious thought to his suggestion. It is common knowledge that human beings need only one kidney to live on. However, lacking one kidney is compromising one's health, because if that kidney were to fail or run into serious difficulties, the person would be essentially screwed. The person, previously completely healthy, would also need to watch his diet and regulate his lifestyle because he now only has one kidney and he can't have it fail on him. All for helping out a complete stranger?

Additionally, surgery is not completely risk-free; there is always the chance of complications, possibly serious ones, developing. After surgery, a recuperation period is needed, during which the donor cannot work. What is he supposed to survive on?

Is this donor supposed to sacrifice his health, his livelihood and potentially even his life, just for a complete stranger?

I'm no saint, and no, I am not prepared at all, under any circumstances, to do anything of this sort, and expecting me or any right-minded person to be so prepared is expecting far too damn much.

If the author of this letter is serious about his ludicrous suggestion, let him be the first. And let him also give one leg, for we can survive with just one leg, and one arm, for we can survive with just one arm, and one eye, for we can survive with just one eye, and half his liver, because we don't need our entire liver. Until he is prepared to do all that, he should not shoot his mouth off with completely ridiculous suggestions that are impossible to implement.

And what, exactly, does it once again say of the Straits Times that it publishes letters of such abysmal standards?