unozero
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NEW YORK (AP) - In 2005, a rebellious and sporadically employed Israeli man flew to New York to give up a kidney to save an American businessman. For that, he says he was paid $20,000, which appeared in a brown envelope on his hospital bed after the operation.
That payoff would be illegal.
But the kidney donor, 39-year-old Nick Rosen of Tel Aviv, says that doesn't matter. "I smoke pot. That's also against the law."
Rosen believes he did a good deed and that organ donors like him should be compensated. Much of his story can be confirmed, and the case gives new resonance to claims that a black market for kidneys has thrived even in the United States.
Rosen made a video about his transplant experience, and near the end of it, he is seen reclining on a bed piled with cash. A subtitle says: "This is what $20,000 looks like." It's hard to tell the amount, but the $100 face of Ben Franklin is visible on the bills.
His tale of organ trafficking might be incredible if he had not made the video - and if the issue of black market organs had not burst into public view with the recent arrest of a New Yorker accused of brokering a kidney sale. Rosen does not know that man, who as far as he knows, had nothing to do with his own transaction.
For years, kidneys have been available on a thriving international black market, but evidence of organ trafficking in the United States is harder to find. However, doctors and others in the transplant field have long suspected an illegal organ market exists here.
Nick Rosen's story - which he says began when he answered a "Kidney Donor Wanted" ad in an Israeli newspaper - may open a window into that world.
what do you guys think?
I think alot of people in the U.S would if they could. But it would most likely mean that only "rich sick" people could afford to ever get a heart or kidney so I was thinking couldn't they just keep the system that they have right now and a separate system were people have to pay?
I know it probably just wouldn't work the way where rich people and "poorer people"would have the same chances...and if they can't have equal chances then I don't think it should become legal then.
but wouldn't it be nice if my family received some compensation for all my organs in case I die an early death? I'm a donor right now and I really don't mind them making my Casket lighter but I'm sure people without life insurance would appreciate this as well.