Back…with a music recommendation and kidney chat

Dunno what really prompted me to dust off the blog after 5 months of snoredom (and a heap of people responding to my Kidney for $50000 post with, of course, offers to sell their own kidneys), but I thought I’d do so and see what happens.

In the interests of promoting fine unsigned musical talent, check out this link to a band called The Project, headed up by Andrew Furth, who regularly posts at one of my regular forum hangouts, the Dave Matthews Band fan forum http://www.antsmarching.org – Andrew’s been working on a live EP and has tracks to download:

http://www.theprojectboston.com/onathursday

Now, to kidneys.

My Dad’s recuperating in hospital after an operation to remove what’s most likely the very beginnnings of a cancerous growth on one of his kidneys, so it’s sort of a current affairs issue in the family. But looking over the 5 months of yet to be approved comments (as of this afternoon), I was rather stunned to see 20 comments by people who were offering one of theirs. My approval of these is by no way an endorsement of their “for sale” ads, but a simple way of showing just how willing people are to put a price on one of their organs.

It’s just…well, interesting.

Sell your kidney for $50000?

Kidney specialist Gavin Carney has floated the idea of offering $50000 to young healthy people to sell one of their kidneys. His rationale behind this is that such a move would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in dialysis treatment, since people with kidney disorders would not have to wait for up to a decade for a donor kidney.

I agree with Dr Tim Matthews of Kidney Australia, who is advocating a greater awareness of the benefits of organ donation upon death. It is a sad fact that many young people tragically die in accidents (such as the boating accident in Sydney Harbour last week), and I would reckon that hardly any of them were aware that they can be registered as an organ donor via the RTA when they get their drivers license, or via Medicare.

I am registered as an organ donor, simply because I know that when I die, my healthy bits and pieces aren’t going to be of any use to me as I am buried/cremated. If those can help save lives, then I think that it’s worth volunteering myself and my kidneys, liver, etc. for that purpose.

Source: News Limited