Money Does Buy Happiness

Money Does Buy Happiness

Professor Lee Wei Ling, on subject of disquiet about the amendment before Parliament to reimburse organ donors, fingered public-sector renal physicians and transplant surgeons as the spoilers, positing that “they are more concerned about being treated as pariahs by international or American medical societies of their specialities.”Merriam-Webster defines the word as such:

Main Entry: pa·ri·ah
Pronunciation: \pə-ˈrī-ə\
Function: noun
Etymology: Tamil par_aiyan, literally, drummer
Date: 1613
1 : a member of a low caste of southern India
2 : one that is despised or rejected : outcast

Speaking up for the Singapore Urological Association, Professor E.Kesavan first pointed out that the majority of their members are in private practice. He then highlighted that unpaid volunteers surgeons within their membership have supported the national transplantation programme for more than 20 years, without any thought of recognition or reward. Needless to say they take umbrage at the insinuation that these doctors place their interests before those of the community, “as was implied in the (Lee’s) letter.” But why the pariah label?

Perhaps Lee missed out on the crucial argument against the amendment, which is that the new law lacked details to regulate payment amounts, to ensure that it is kept “not-for-profit, transparent and devoid of abuse,” to quote dissenting PAP MP Christppher de Souza. NCMP Sylvia Lim put it more starkly: “The new formula leaves room for profit.” In particular she referred to a clause that allows for defraying or reimbursing costs which may include travel, accommodation, cost of domestic or child care, loss of income and long-term-medical care. One could almost hear Vivian Balakrishnan query the accommmodation - is it 5-star, budget hotel or rent-by the-hour? Unvoiced in parliament, but probably lurking in the minds of everybody inside and outside the house, is the explained mechanism of how retail tycoon Tang Wee Sung jumped the queue for his organ transplant, and so soon after he was convicted for illegally buying a kidney from a Indonesian.

The way Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan brushed aside the concerns about reimbursement caps or formulae by stating that he preferred not to “hardwire technical matters” into the act leads only to further misgivings about potential abuse. Like most legislations in Singapore, there is this provision: “at the Minister’s pleasure.” It is no comfort that the proposed crucial gatekeepers will be the hospital’s transplant ethics committee, probably the same committee that approved the harvesting of the Indonesia sourced kidney for Tang in the first place.

Khaw made it clear on aspect of compensation: Foreign donors will get a “much lower reimbursement cap,” due to the lower cost of living in their home countries. In other words, forget about a kidney from America, United Kingdom or Japan; sourcing from pariahs is much cheaper. If you got the cash, anything is for sale - even a heart.

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