Australia's Issue on Organ Transplants

Australia is witnessing an unprecedented increase in the purchase of human organs, especially from developing countries, rather than an indefinite wait for native donors.

Sick Australians are even ready to travel to China and Philippines to buy kidneys, although they have been warned of health risks. Ethical considerations should not be imposed upon people who are sick already according to Kidney Health Australia chief executive Anne Wilson. They will resort to whatever measure is available to them to get healed, although it might involve international trade of human organs.

About Transplantation
Since the early times, the novel idea of transplanting tissues and other body parts from one organism to the other has captured the imagination of successive generations.

When the promise of an organ goes awry because of the reluctance of relatives of the dead donor, the patient who had waited is cruelly let down. Facing this dilemma, a person can be hardly be blamed for doing an online search and settling for a kidney transplant which would cost somewhere between $15,000 and $70,000 in a Chinese hospital.

This is why Dr Shearmur, the deputy of the Australian National University's School of Philosophy, has called for the Federal Government to introduce a ''fully legalised, and also privately certified, program for the purchase of kidneys from healthy, voluntary live donors from poorer countries''.

With kidney and urinary tract failure being the 10^th most common cause of death, and yet only 6 per cent of those on dialysis having had a transplant, Australia must think seriously about how to address this issue.

Quiz on Kidney
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, and are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of your spine.

Healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through two thin tubes of muscle called ureters, one on each side of your bladder. The bladder stores urine. The kidneys, ureters, and bladder are partof the urinary tract.

Medical Tourism - The Road Ahead
Medical Tourism has become a serious enterprise in India over the last two years. However some hospitals have been practicing it for quite a few years.

kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals-such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus and potassium-in your blood ().

Without this balance, nerves, muscles, and other tissues in the body may not work normally.

Kidneys also make hormones that help

Control your blood pressure
Make red blood cells
Keep your bones strong and healthy

As some experts feel this may be the appropriate time to consider a more binding form of consent where individual wishes are respected negating family prejudices, when it is time to decide what to do with their organs.

Source-Medindia

Protein Catabolic Rate
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