Organs for Sale 2004
Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th Street, New York, NY 10016; 202-808-4980
Produced by Steen Jensen, DR TV
Directed by Steen Jensen, DR TV
VHS, color, 58 min.
Sr. High - Adult
Ethics, Bioethics, Sociology, Economics, Pakistan
Date Entered: 02/10/2005
Reviewed by Ernarosa Tominich, MLS, Trocaire College Library, Buffalo NYThey stand in a single line, their naked torsos exposed to the camera. A meat-hook scar brands them from hip to ribcage. Unable to work as long or as hard as before, most poor Pakistanis regret their decision of selling a kidney.
Time runs short for Jim Jallman who awaits a kidney transplant for the past six years. He seeks to buy a kidney on the Internet because the practice of selling organs is illegal in Denmark as well as other European countries. Jim finds a ready market of donors in Pakistan where organs for sale are not illegal, but still controversial and mainly advocated by “word of mouth”. Jim decides to take a chance. He travels from his native Denmark to Pakistan to buy a kidney and undergo transplant surgery. As Jim awaits a likely donor match, a hidden camera discloses unsanitary hospital conditions. Yet Jim is lucky. A donor is found, the doctors are skilled and Jim’s surgery is successful. He returns to Denmark for follow-up medical care. Unfortunately the hospital where such surgeries are performed gives donors no follow-up care and even denies any knowledge of them. This fact and the need to return to work one short week after surgery, leaves poor Pakistani organ donors in chronic pain and poor health for the rest of their lives.
This video explores the bio-ethical and socioeconomic questions of organs for sale. Donors seek their opportunity to make $15000-$3,000 through the sale of a kidney. In Pakistan this amount of money equals to seven years of earned wages. Jim’s donor earns $1.50 per day and lives in a house with his wife, six children and 16 other relatives. $3000 will buy him a plot of land where he can build a house for his family. But what happens when the money runs out?
Organs for Sale discloses the growing practice of those desperate to buy organs and of the economically poor ripe for exploitation and is highly recommended. Although English subtitles do not facilitate the narrative as well as the spoken word, the color, sound and logistics are of acceptable quality.