I’ve been home in southern California for a few days now enjoying the beginning of the summer break. Today, my mother and I were channel surfing and came across this documentary about Iranians selling their kidneys to people struck with fatal diseases. It was horrifying to see unfortunate people opting to sell an organ in order to free themselves from indebtedness or to start anew. At the same time, it was heart wrenching to see people dying to get a new kidney and not having enough money to buy one. According to the video, the buyer pays the equivalent of $2,000 and the state adds $1,000 to buy a donor’s kidney. Can you really put a price on your kidney? If so, does $3,000 suffice? No, according to the sellers/donors as they all seemed to be in need of more money but agreed to the bargain out of desperation. At the same time, $2,000 is a lot of money for an ordinary Iranian to fork over, especially when the average monthly salary is $200 (according to the documentary)… and I thought I had problems.
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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Meta
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
It’s a terrible model and it’s the reason my dad, a transplant doc made it a goal to leave Iran and practice. Great that you wrote about this because it’s one of the interesting aspects of Iranian life today that people don’t know about abroad.
Thank you IRI. Oil is about $135, I believe it is more important to give billions of dollars to Islamic groups and movements around the globe.
God, does that not sound like Arash? Arash, your horrible English seeps through every single sentence you write. And Azadeh left you, and you are fat and ugly.