Sujadi’s Blog

It’s been almost 10 years since I stepped into a dialysis centre. Last week I visited one in Jakarta following the kidney trading story that broke in Singapore. I used to cover extensively stories surrounding kidney patients and issues pertaining to organ donation in Singapore - especially among the Malay/Muslim community who was then reluctant to donate their organs. This time round - in Indonesia - the issues are similar but the situation is more dire.

There are only 123 dialysis centres in Indonesia catering to an estimated 2 million kidney patients. And only 64 kidney specialists.  Ir’a not difficult to imagine what happened to those who could not get to the dialysis machine in time after waiting in line for so long.

A kidney specialist I met at the dialysis centre echoed the sentiments of many who had close contact with kidney patients when he said desperate situations call for desperate measures. He knew some of his patients had their transplant overseas with kidney purchased from another person whose identity was never revealed. But he couldn’t stop them because he wasn’t able to offer alternatives for them to lead normal lives. This is about saving lives. Organ trading - I hate this term - will continue to flourish because kidney patients want to live. And there are people out there - facing different kinds of desperate situations - who are willing to sell their kidney so that they too can live.

Yes, there are ethical and moral issues that need to be extensivelsy discussed. But let’s not forget that the whole exercise is about saving lives. As experts deliberate, patients continue to perish.

Let’s face it - the middlemen helped save lives too. Without their services, many patients may find it difficult to locate willing donors. Yes, in the case of Indonesia they helped forge documents which should not be condoned. Like other middlemen, they charge for their services. And like in other businesses, there are a number of them who give the industry a bad name by grossly overcharging or under-paying their clients. By all means weed out the bad hats. But to kill their services will dim the hope of kidney patients for a new lease of life. Maybe the middlemen services need to be regulated.

In the light of recent cases of organ trading in Singapore, it’s high time the issue is revisited. But I hope this time round, there’s light at the end of the dark tunnel for kidney patients. This is about saving lives…