{"id":7393,"date":"2024-08-31T15:03:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T15:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/31\/blood-type-o-dm-me-myanmars-poorest-are-so-desperate-theyre-turning-to-social-media-to-sell-their-kidneys\/"},"modified":"2024-08-31T15:03:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T15:03:02","slug":"blood-type-o-dm-me-myanmars-poorest-are-so-desperate-theyre-turning-to-social-media-to-sell-their-kidneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/31\/blood-type-o-dm-me-myanmars-poorest-are-so-desperate-theyre-turning-to-social-media-to-sell-their-kidneys\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blood type O. DM me\u2019: Myanmar\u2019s poorest are so desperate they\u2019re turning to social media to sell their kidneys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, please call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 to connect with a trained counselor, or visit the <\/em>988 Lifeline website<\/em>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Delivery driver Maung Maung\u2019s wife and young daughter hadn\u2019t eaten in three days, he recalled, when he walked into an internet cafe in his hometown of Mandalay, Myanmar, in late 2022. <\/p>\n

He had recently been detained and tortured by the country\u2019s military junta for weeks, he said, on suspicion of transporting goods for opposition forces, during which time his wife had been forced to take out loans to support the family. <\/p>\n

When he was finally released, he had lost his job and the family found themselves penniless and ridden with debt. Desperate, Maung Maung went on Facebook and offered to sell his kidney. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment, I felt life was so harsh. There is no other way I could survive other than to rob or kill people for money,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wife was the same, she didn\u2019t want to stay in this world anymore. But only for the sake of our daughter we stayed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Months later in July 2023, Maung Maung, who asked to use a pseudonym for safety reasons, traveled to India for the transplant surgery. A wealthy Chinese-Burmese businessman had bought his kidney for 10 million Burmese kyat ($3,079), nearly twice the annual average urban household income in Myanmar, according to 2019 data from UN affiliated Myanmar Information Management Unit. <\/p>\n

Maung Maung is not the only one. <\/p>\n

When asked for comment, Meta, Facebook\u2019s owner, said one online group had been removed, but the company declined to give further details or comment further. Facebook\u2019s own rules do not allow content that lets users buy, sell or trade human body parts and breaches can be reported for review. <\/p>\n

Coup sends poverty soaring<\/h2>\n

Three years since Myanmar\u2019s military took power in a coup, nearly half of the country\u2019s 54 million people live below the poverty line. That figure has doubled since 2017, researchers with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has found. <\/p>\n

As various armed groups fought against junta control, violence spread across the country. Foreign investment dropped, unemployment skyrocketed and the cost of basic goods increased at a rate most people couldn\u2019t keep up with. While sellers are poor and buyers relatively rich, both sides are in the illegal organ market because they find themselves in dire straits. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo sell a part of your body is a difficult decision for everyone. Nobody wants to do it,\u201d April, 26, who asked to go by a pseudonym, said shortly after advertising her kidney on Facebook in February. \u201cThe only reason I am doing this is because I have no choice.\u201d <\/p>\n

April said she abandoned her dreams of becoming a nurse and moved to Myanmar\u2019s commercial capital Yangon when she was 18 to work in a garment factory and help support her family. But her monthly salary of $100 was not enough to keep up with rising costs exacerbated by the political crisis and medical bills that kept piling up as her aunt suffered from cancer. <\/p>\n

A person can still live a healthy life with one kidney, which makes this trade possible, but it\u2019s a major surgery that can have lasting consequences. The biggest risk is not having a backup in case anything happens to the remaining kidney, according to the National Kidney Foundation. <\/p>\n

April quickly wrote up her own post: \u201cI want to donate my kidney. My blood type is O. I need money for my aunt who has cancer and needs an operation. I\u2019m 26 years old and I don\u2019t drink. DM me.\u201d <\/p>\n

An illegal but accessible industry<\/h2>\n

In the online organ trade, buyers and sellers often work with agents, middlemen who match donors with recipients, to forge the necessary documents and arrange surgery. <\/p>\n

Because the sale of organs is illegal in India and donations are permitted only among relatives, with a few rare exceptions, agents often forge household records, family trees and other documents with the help of lawyers and notaries. Myanmar\u2019s embassy in New Delhi has to review the paperwork in order to pass the case to the state or hospital authorization committee. <\/p>\n

The authorization committee is the final line of defense. It\u2019s designed to catch anyone trying to cheat the system. Documents, family photos and bank statements are checked, and interviews conducted to expose strangers posing as family members or anyone trafficking organs. <\/p>\n

Thiri Khine, who asked to use a pseudonym so she could speak safely, became a widow when her husband died eight years ago. Six years later, ravaged by kidney disease, she posed for new wedding photos. This time, the groom smiling next to her was the man whose kidney she was buying for 12 million kyat ($3,695). <\/p>\n

Thiri Khine tried to get a transplant by getting on the official transplant waitlist, but said the process would\u2019ve taken years, at which point she may have already died from her illness. <\/p>\n

Between 1995 and 2022, there were only 308 successful kidney transplants in Myanmar, according to ruling junta chief Min Aung Hlaing\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

Since the coronavirus pandemic and the coup, transplants can only be performed at military hospitals, with a few exceptions, according to one current and one former doctor in Yangon who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety. <\/p>\n

The war has also created a shortage of doctors. <\/p>\n

In the early days of the military takeover, doctors were often at the forefront of the resistance movement, treating injured protesters and staging strikes. For this, they paid a high price, with many medical professionals arrested or forced to flee the country, leaving Myanmar\u2019s already fragile healthcare system on the brink of collapse. <\/p>\n

\u2018Family photos\u2019, a trip to India<\/h2>\n

In the weeks leading up to the surgery, Thiri Khine and her pretend husband practiced for the authorization committee interview, finding answers to questions such as how they met, each other\u2019s favorite foods and their license plate number. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interrogation to confirm whether we are a real couple or not. But the thing is they know that we are lying,\u201d Thiri Khine says. \u201cThe law by definition is strict, and so are the hospital\u2019s rules. However they make it possible for us to get the treatment by ignoring the red flags and forged documents.\u201d <\/p>\n

Scared and far from home, Maung Maung went through a number of medical tests and interviews in the days before his transplant surgery. He had never left Myanmar before, but now he found himself posing for photos in front of New Delhi\u2019s famous Lotus Temple next to the family of the man who would soon have his kidney. <\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIf I die, I hope this money could help my wife and daughter for their food and survival, even if it would not last their whole lifetime.\u201d <\/p>\n

Myanmar\u2019s military has a long and well-documented track record of rights abuses, and the civil war has unleashed new levels of violence on both civilians and rebel forces alike. <\/p>\n

\u2018Saving a life\u2019<\/h2>\n

One Yangon-based agent, who asked to remain anonymous due to the illicit nature of his work, said both the Burmese embassy in India as well as the authorization committees are aware that the document presented are forged. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an act of saving a life. It is not a bad thing,\u201d he says, having received a kidney transplant himself in a similar way last year. <\/p>\n

Dr Sunil Shroff, a transplant surgeon and founder of the Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network, a non-profit which promotes organ donation in India, said the issue of organ donation is complex. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not an easy job for the (authorization) committee either. Then again, they\u2019re not policing it. They\u2019re looking at each case individually with some sympathy because there is a recipient suffering who needs an organ,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

This is complicated by the fact that documents produced in another country are extremely difficult to authenticate. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the embassy signs, what happens is that the local authorization committee thinks the responsibility was on the embassy. They might be coming with an unrelated donor we don\u2019t know,\u201d Dr Shroff said. <\/p>\n

A ward filled with Burmese patients<\/h2>\n
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<\/div>\n
\n
This pictures shows Maung Maung’s belongings as he is recovering from transplant surgery in a hospital in New Delhi, India.<\/span> <\/div>
CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n
This picture shows Maung Maung recovering from transplant surgery in a hospital in New Delhi, India.<\/span> <\/div>
CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A few days after the transplant surgery in August 2023, Maung Maung sat on the edge of his hospital bed and lifted his shirt to reveal a fresh scar on his left side. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems it is healing from inside, but it still hurts on the outside,\u201d he said, touching the purple mark. <\/p>\n

As he walked through the hospital, he pointed out other Burmese patients in the recovery ward, each with the same four-inch scar on their abdomen. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go to the toilet, you see Myanmar people and when you go somewhere nearby you see Myanmar people again,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

For those trapped in a never-ending cycle of poverty, selling a body part often appears as a quick way to escape. It\u2019s been a last resort taken by people in many other countries from Afghanistan to Nepal, but it\u2019s one that comes with serious and sometimes fatal health consequences. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality of life after selling the kidney is not good because once the money runs out, they\u2019re back to square one. And then there\u2019s a scar to see. They look at it, so they\u2019re depressed,\u201d Dr Shroff says. <\/p>\n

Maung Maung predicts that with only one kidney left \u201cthe most I can live is 15 to 20 years and then I will be gone.\u201d <\/p>\n

Yet, he doesn\u2019t regret his decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had not done this at this moment, my life would be in chaos. No job, no food. My wife, my kid didn\u2019t have anything to eat. All three of us could have been dead or gone crazy.\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

He has since returned home to Mandalay but hasn\u2019t recovered enough to work. He spends most of his days at home, in pain, as the money he got for selling his kidney slowly runs out. <\/p>\n

Documents were forged, family photos showing April as the man\u2019s eldest daughter taken \u2014 the only thing left was the surgery. <\/p>\n

As the transplant neared, April worried she might die on the operating table, but felt it was too late to back out. <\/p>\n

April\u2019s family still did not know about her plan to sell her kidney. <\/p>\n

For mental health support outside of the US, a worldwide directory of resources and international hotlines is provided by the <\/em>International Association for Suicide Prevention<\/em>. You can also turn to <\/em>Befrienders Worldwide<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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