I can't even to begin to explain the sheer pompous, colonialistic, selfish actions of this man. I am terribly afraid that it does, however, reflect our general Western values and arrogance. Luckily, however, a very eloquent letter writer to the Toronto Star today states it much more clearly, so, as I'm rather tired, I will just quote the letter verbatim:
Robert Zurrer, a two-time kidney transplant recipient, claims it is "arrogant" to tell him he can't buy a kidney from a poverty-stricken person in a poor country. Dialysis, he says, is "a living death." I would say the arrogance is on the part of Zurrer and the rest of the consumer-oriented developed world.
He continued to live an active life, sometimes putting himself in jeopardy by playing hockey when he knew he shouldn't and playing golf four days after his first transplant operation. Twenty years later, he cashed in his savings to buy a body part from a man who perhaps didn't know the ramifications of his actions, perhaps wasn't even paid for the kidney. And Zurrer knows nothing of what happened to his donor after the operation.
This is nothing but a case of neo-colonialism, where a white man benefits from the destitution of a brown man living in poverty. And let's not forget that the whole transaction is based on the profit motive – profit for the intermediaries, not the individual who makes the sacrifice. Zurrer sees it as his right to live a full life, but based on what? The fact that he is white, living in the comfortable West with the cash to buy a body part? This sense of entitlement is endemic to Westerners.
Having to undergo dialysis to stay alive, perhaps dying at a young age (by Western standards), is a terrible thing. But even having the ability to live on dialysis, to live into one's 50s, as Robert Zurrer has done, is not an option for many people living in the poverty of Asia and Africa. And still we take their kidneys, as well as their labour and resources, so that we can improve our lives.
Stephen Bloom, Toronto
Bravo, Mr. Bloom!
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It is an outrage, even without having to resort to "Neo-Colonialism". The author of the letter pinned it down themselves: it is the taking advantage of another person's desperation to prolong your life at the expense of theirs. It's right to point out this is the logical outcome of capitalist practices without the hindrance of ethics. Robert Zurrer has essentially advocated for might-makes-right.
On a tangent, I wonder what the letter writer's thoughts are on Embryonic Stem Cell research?
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