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Invasion of the Body Snatchers
theodp writes "Newsweek reports that a grim trade in stolen human tissue isn't just the stuff of Robin Cook novels. Demand for the tissue, which is used in such procedures as joint and heart-valve replacements, back surgery, dental implants and skin grafts, has driven the price for a single harvested body up to $7,000. Many unsuspecting recipients are now rushing to doctors to be tested for tainted tissue."
I'm not giving my brain back.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Honestly, how do you tell the difference between good tissue from a legitimate source and good tissue from an illegal source? If they didn't fuck up, conceivably you won't notice...
It's only an insult if it's not true.
Lawyers for all the men have insisted their clients did nothing illegal
Forging death certificates? Supplying stolen, possibly diseased, human tissue to medical facilities, which presumably are going to give it to patients who are already ill? And they argue that there's nothing illegal about this?
The lawyers themselves should almost be on trial.
I thought a kidney was 10K easily. TV has lied to me and those student loans are only getting bigger.
I'd be pretty pissed if someone used taint tissue on me too!
Makes me hope for a day when cloning techniques allow replacements to be grown from your own cells.
Of course, that still won't stop sh*t like this. Part of this problem stems from the fact that we're so paranoid about human parts(mostly deservably), that demand outstrips supply enough to inflate values into the stratosphere.
There's always somebody willing to save a buck by introducing or substituting substandard materials.
I don't read AC A human right
I've been in a certain central-american country where they'd kill you for your passport, because they could sell it fo a measly $500.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
No names and no pack drill.
I worked for a man who was incredibly rich and extremely well connected, there might have been things he couldn't buy, like some countries, due to lack of money, and there was one thing he could not buy in reality, which was sight for his blind daughter...
However he did tell me very matter of factly that when you were a millionaire it was a simple matter of going to miami where jewish doctors (I'm repeating what I was told, so I'm not going to alter it to remove any racial / religious references in a bid to make it more credible etc) would sell you any transplantable organ or tissue you liked, at a price, harvested from medically screened live donors, said donors being sourced in south america.
A healthy 20 year old heart, chosen to match your tissue etc etc etc
He was as matter of facts about things that were just there and available to the super rich as we would be about a 1U web server, it's there if you want it.
I doubt the actual true non politically correct market value of a single average human life has increased any in the intervening 19 years.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
From the pdf file the_immune_system:
Immunology and Transplants
Each year thousands of American lives are prolonged by transplanted organs -- kidney,heart,lung,liver,and pancreas.For a transplant to "take," however,,the body 's natural tendency to rid itself of foreign tissue must be overridden. One way,tissue typing ,makes sure markers of self on the donor 's tissue are as similar as possible to those of the recipient.Each cell has a double set of 6 major tissue
antigens,and each of the antigens exists, in different individuals,in as many as 20 varieties.The chance of 2 people having identical transplant antigens is about 1 in 100,000.
Transplant patients must first overcome these odds. If it were me I think my tendency would be to breathe a sigh of relief at having found donor tissue and that relief might make me tend to put questions about tissue health on the back burner.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
For those of you who wonder about how they test for "tainted" tissue, it's rather easy:
Does the patient now have a disease that they didn't have before the transplant? Were they at risk to contract the disease independently of the transplant? If someone who has been married for 50 years suddenly shows up with AIDS, hepititis, etc. it's a pretty good bet it's from the transplant and not risky sexual behaviour. You assess the patient and see if a new condition they are experiencing is due to lifestyle or other factors.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
The proper term for this practice is organlegging, not body snatching. Read Larry Niven to see where this may go.
Every organ transplant recipient should be strongly pressured to donate all their own organs when they die, if they're in acceptable condition. And the transplanting doctors should share some of the money they receive for the operation with the donor's family (or other beneficiary). The death of the donor should be sufficient prohibition for selling their organs. If it's not, the indestructible illegal trade will offer a market anyway.
Along these lines, I don't know why there's always such a severe blood shortage. Most people receiving blood transfusions schedule their surgery weeks or months in advance. It only takes a couple of weeks for drawn blood to regenerate. They should all have drawn the maximum they can handle from the moment their requirements are known until their surgery. And after they recover, they should submit even more. They should count primarily on their own autologous donations, which tax the healthcare system so much less by "matching the donor" without extensive tests and mistakes, as well as leaving the donations of other people alone. Everyone who receives blood from a stranger even once should have to donate at least once a year for several following years, health permitting. Maybe they should receive discounts on their own care when "giving back", maybe they should be required to donate if "in the system" for receiving from strangers. But there's absolutely no reason that scheduled blood demands should offer anything but a pool of donors, instead of the overwhelming demand we see now.
--
make install -not war
Huh. Makes sense. Yeah, when I'm getting plowed in the ass daily, I'll make up some invisible friend in the sky who did this to me. Then, when I meet him, I'll kill him.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
The most tragic outcome of this story is that it might discourage tissue and organ donation. The advantages of tissue donation in particular are not as widely known as they should be. Where organ donation requires tissue type matching, tissue donation does not, and tissue donation is an option for far more people who want to make a contribution after death (including the elderly and many who are in very poor shape at the time of death). It can be an option for those dying at home under hospice care. Tissue donation can benefit 50-100 people.
http://shareyourlife.org/
http://organdonor.gov/
http://www.rtix.com/index.cfm
http://lifecell.com/
http://www.cryolife.com/
If it's harvested illegally, the donor or the donor's next-of-kin can get paid. Otherwise under present US law they can't. Getting paid would motivate people to donate who would not otherwise donate.
Thus, illegally harvesting good tissue for transplant makes excellent economic sense and would save lives. Unfortuntely, since the transaction is illegal, contract law doesn't apply and it's hard to get a positive reputation without getting caught. It's a shame that legislators are so willing to make laws that obviously cause the death of innocent people, and that voters are stupid enough to tolerate that behavior.
I think a bigger factor is that Christian's send many people to talk to prisoners, and forgiveness of sins helps deal with guilt or crimes committed (and the day of judgements helps with dealing with enemies, being able to think they will eventually get what they deserve). I know Nation is Islam has had many people join out of prison (their programs to help ex-convicts stay out of jail and gang deterrence programs are probably major factors in that), I don't know about Islam in general though.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
They just pretend to pick you up for some casual sex, but then when you fall asleep in the hotel they perform surgery, snatch your kidneys, and into the bathtub full of ice you go... It's true! This happened to a friend of someone who sent me an email....
What about the blood?? You felt safer receiving that from another person??
Absolutely not. That didn't happen either. Never will.
Before the surgery I stockpiled my own blood, one unit per week, I had 5 units of my own blood on standby in case I needed it during the surgery.
I thought of all these things before hand.
I also carry a card in my wallet stating that in case of emergency I refuse blood, plasma, tissue or body parts from anyone other than my blood relatives.
If it means the difference between taking a transfusion from the public blood supply or laying there and dying, I choose to die. I refuse anonymous donations of anything going into my body. This also includes bio-engineered body parts like pig and mouse freakshow parts. No animal parts, no thanks.
And no, I'm not a religious fanatic, I'm an Atheist 101%.
Why? Because I don't want to catch any of the hundreds of disgusting diseases currently available through blood transfusions and organ/tissue donations.
Thanks, but no thanks.