Imagine this horrific nightmare. You have a debilitating kidney ailment. Despite dialysis treatments every couple of days, it's getting worse. You'll die without a transplant. Your friends get together, and they find a live donor -- some noble stranger who's willing to save your life.
The government-run hospital
says no:
But Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital refuses to do the transplant for what it claims are "ethical" reasons.
Dr. Douglas Keith, head of the hospital's living donor transplant program, says the hospital could not be sure there is no "quid pro quo" agreement between Tegegne and Dhar. He also says the donation looks suspicious because the donor is from the Third World and contact was made on the Internet.
Dhar has repeatedly stated that his motives are pure, and that he is not looking for money or to immigrate to Canada.
He says he is motivated by religious conviction and is moved by Tegegne's story. Dhar also wants to honor his grandfather, an Indian army general who died of kidney disease.
He should just bypass the government health care system and get his transplant from a private doctor, right? No dice:
And under federal law, private clinics are not legally allowed to provide services covered by the Canada Health Act, so there is no competition - and nowhere else to turn for help.
Socialized medicine kills.
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