Kidney sale fears inspire new organ donation statute

School of Vice: 

No analogy is really needed to give imagery to the tragedy the "country for sale" is going through. The quoted phrase forms the title of a Global Witness report on the organised scale of rampant destruction linked to elite corruption in Cambodia over the past four decades of the Hun Sen regime. 

Nationally, the nation is made to 'sell' cheap [very cheap indeed when one considers the rent the state levies on every hectare of land leased to foreigners under ELC terms that even an average impoverished farmer could afford it. Sadly, the cheap rate is not meant for them or their benefit!] most of its vital 'organs', from timber and minerals to sands and communal estates. In fact, Cambodia is made to sell more than her organs: her children [the cream of her youth population] are exiled abroad to sell yet more cheaply their labour and time; most state institutions, from the courts and the king to the clergy are all, yes, sold off quite cheaply too. But don't clamour for justice or fairness, lest one risks being accused of inciting 'racism', 'xenophobia' or of being another Pol Pot?

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A man in Phnom Penh shows a scar on his side where a kidney was taken out. Heng Chivoan

Kidney sale fears inspire new organ donation statute

Mon, 30 May 2016 ppp

Bun Sengkong

A law to regulate organ donations has reached draft stage, according to a press release issued by the Council of Ministers on Friday.

It is already against the law to “traffic people with the purpose of organ removal”, and the first convictions in the Kingdom under the existing law were handed down in March, but the new legislation will outlaw all for-profit donations.

However, the new law, which Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said followed the government coming “across a number of cases happening in Cambodia as well as other countries”, will further outlaw the trade in human tissue.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Siphan said the law was a response to a global rise in demand for kidneys. “Scientific research found that low and average income countries face a high risk of kidney trafficking,” he wrote. “Poverty drives some people to sell their kidneys through brokers.”

According to draft articles posted by Siphan, the law will require all organ donors to be over 18 and of sound mind. It will also expressly forbid donations to be made for profit or solicited by advertisement.