Steak & Dialysis Pie...
Reality's Bitch @ amazon beast from hell dot com
The most outRAGEOUS story heard during this transit was told by my attorney,
who *swears* it's not Urban Legend. Didn't happen to a celebrity, either...
but since this is alt.SHOWBIZ.gossip, we'll pretend that it did.
Approximately six weeks ago, a 30-some-odd-year-old male named kathy lee
gifford attended a business meeting in Las Vegas. Afterwards, he went to
a bar, alone, and ordered a drink.
He has absolutely *NO* memory of what happened between then and the moment
he awoke...in a bathtub filled with ice, next to which was a stool *on*
which was placed a telephone. And a note reading, "Call 911. We've taken
your kidneys (, miss lee)."
Aside from the fact that Las Vegas is the *last* place I'd go looking for
"unblemished" internal organs, could someone actually *live* through this???
My medical friends assure me 'tis possible (as long as the phone could be
reached).
Should we go to the Chinese Medicine groups and explain that kathy lee's
gall is bigger'n any *Kodiak's*???
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
If the Good Lord hadn't wanted us to suffer, we'd all be a whole lot happier.
vcz
Born to Opine
Clarksville Street Department
Reality's Bitch @ amazon beast from hell dot com (v...@ns1.flinet.com) wrote:
: The most outRAGEOUS story heard during this transit was told by my attorney,
: but since this is alt.SHOWBIZ.gossip, we'll pretend that it did.
: Approximately six weeks ago, a 30-some-odd-year-old male named kathy lee
: gifford attended a business meeting in Las Vegas. Afterwards, he went to
: a bar, alone, and ordered a drink.
: He has absolutely *NO* memory of what happened between then and the moment
: he awoke...in a bathtub filled with ice, next to which was a stool *on*
: which was placed a telephone. And a note reading, "Call 911. We've taken
: your kidneys (, miss lee)."
: Aside from the fact that Las Vegas is the *last* place I'd go looking for
: "unblemished" internal organs, could someone actually *live* through this???
: My medical friends assure me 'tis possible (as long as the phone could be
: reached).
: Should we go to the Chinese Medicine groups and explain that kathy lee's
: gall is bigger'n any *Kodiak's*???
I heard the same story also from someone who *swears* it's true. Thank God
my mother and sister came back from there a few days ago with their organs
intact. WHAT ARE PEOPLE THINKING??????
: #*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
: ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
: If the Good Lord hadn't wanted us to suffer, we'd all be a whole lot happier.
: vcz
: Born to Opine
--
Joanna - striving everyday to be the person my dog thinks I am.---
pau...@ix.netcom.com
jo...@iglou.com (Clarksville Street Department) wrote:
>Reality's Bitch @ amazon beast from hell dot com (v...@ns1.flinet.com) wrote:
>: The most outRAGEOUS story heard during this transit was told by my attorney,
>: who *swears* it's not Urban Legend. Didn't happen to a celebrity, either...
>: but since this is alt.SHOWBIZ.gossip, we'll pretend that it did.
>: Approximately six weeks ago, a 30-some-odd-year-old male named kathy lee
>: gifford attended a business meeting in Las Vegas. Afterwards, he went to
>: a bar, alone, and ordered a drink.
>: He has absolutely *NO* memory of what happened between then and the moment
>: he awoke...in a bathtub filled with ice, next to which was a stool *on*
>: which was placed a telephone. And a note reading, "Call 911. We've taken
>: your kidneys (, miss lee)."
>I heard the same story also from someone who *swears* it's true. Thank God
>my mother and sister came back from there a few days ago with their organs
>intact. WHAT ARE PEOPLE THINKING??????
But free range human kidney tastes _so_ much better than that cornmeal
fed bovine stuff you find in the grocery store.
PaulX
Yet Another Steve
In article <Pine.BSI.3.91.960616...@ns1.flinet.com>,
"Reality's Bitch @ amazon beast from hell dot com" <v...@ns1.flinet.com>
wrote:
> The most outRAGEOUS story heard during this transit was told by my attorney,
> who *swears* it's not Urban Legend. Didn't happen to a celebrity, either...
> but since this is alt.SHOWBIZ.gossip, we'll pretend that it did.
>
> Approximately six weeks ago, a 30-some-odd-year-old male named kathy lee
> gifford attended a business meeting in Las Vegas. Afterwards, he went to
> a bar, alone, and ordered a drink.
>
> He has absolutely *NO* memory of what happened between then and the moment
> he awoke...in a bathtub filled with ice, next to which was a stool *on*
> which was placed a telephone. And a note reading, "Call 911. We've taken
> your kidneys (, miss lee)."
[snip]
Usually in this story, it's only one kidney that's been taken. How rude of
them to steal both, this time.
It ain't a bona fide Urban Legend unless the person who's telling it *swears*
it's true, happened to his own aunt, or at least a friend of hers, or maybe
the friend's daughter's cousin's fiancee...
Steve
keeping an uneasy eye on that vibrating cactus full of tarantula eggs
Jeff Kirk
In article <Pine.BSI.3.91.960616...@ns1.flinet.com>,
v...@ns1.flinet.com says...
>
>The most outRAGEOUS story heard during this transit was told by my attorney,
>who *swears* it's not Urban Legend. Didn't happen to a celebrity, either...
>but since this is alt.SHOWBIZ.gossip, we'll pretend that it did.
>
>Approximately six weeks ago, a 30-some-odd-year-old male named kathy lee
>gifford attended a business meeting in Las Vegas. Afterwards, he went to
>a bar, alone, and ordered a drink.
>
>He has absolutely *NO* memory of what happened between then and the moment
>he awoke...in a bathtub filled with ice, next to which was a stool *on*
>which was placed a telephone. And a note reading, "Call 911. We've taken
>your kidneys (, miss lee)."
>
>"unblemished" internal organs, could someone actually *live* through this???
>My medical friends assure me 'tis possible (as long as the phone could be
>reached).
>
>Should we go to the Chinese Medicine groups and explain that kathy lee's
>gall is bigger'n any *Kodiak's*???
I heard a similar story via a FOAF while living in New York. Apparently this
isn't all that uncommon. The black market for kidneys is apparently quite
lucrative, and a person can easily continue to live on one after having the
other removed.
Jeff
Jeff Kirk
In article <4qbfs5$3...@clarknet.clark.net>, jcb...@clark.net says...
>
> The *rumor* may not be "all that uncommon", but there has NEVER been
>a single proven instance of organ theft. The rumors have been circulating
>for years now, perpetuated whenever they "pop up" in a forum such as this,
>and the ramifications are VERY serious. This may seem like a "fun"
>thread, like so many in a.s.g., but the fact is that organ donation
>is very much dependent on the goodwill of donor families, and when
>rumors are rampant that the transplant industry is complicit in
>a black market, that makes donation less likely.
For starters, the person who told me this is NOT one to lie or spread false,
malicious rumors. This did occur to a friend of hers, and it was reported to
the New York police. It may not make the papers, but somehow I seriously
doubt it has "never" been proven that organ theft occurs. In any case, this
type of thing doesn't imply that it's the transplant industry who's to blame,
but rather underground doctors willing to take the risk for a huge profit.
Sure, the practice is repugnant. But the fact of the matter is that there is
a perpetual shortage of organ donors out there, and thousands of people die
each year because they couldn't receive a transplant of a necessary organ in
time. Thus, it's quite logical that a black market would rise up to cover
people who can't get transplants for whatever reason (and there are plenty
of reasons people are rejected as transplant recipients) and are desperate
enough to avoid death that they'd pay practically any price to do so.
Jeff
---------------------------------------------
My home page is back up!!!
The new URL is http://www.onr.com/user/kirker/me.htm
Reality's Bitch
: Yet Another Steve (Steve_H...@qmail4.nba.TRW.COM) wrote: Usually in
: this story, it's only one kidney that's been taken.
...with fava beans and a nice chianti????
: How rude of them to steal both, this time.
And, how many do they *need*???
: It ain't a bona fide Urban Legend unless the person who's telling it
: *swears* it's true, happened to his own aunt, or at least a friend of
: hers, or maybe the friend's daughter's cousin's fiancee...
Don't they also have to be gay???
: keeping an uneasy eye on that vibrating cactus full of tarantula eggs
My hairdo's been called a *lot* of things...but *never* a "vibrating
cactus". I may just mosey on out to the crick with wad o' yucca...
Are you saying my attorney was *duped*? Or that the organ market is
exploding???
Clarksville Street Department
J C Blalock (jcb...@clark.net) wrote:
: Jeff Kirk (kir...@onr.com) wrote:
: : I heard a similar story via a FOAF while living in New York. Apparently this
: : lucrative, and a person can easily continue to live on one after having the
: : other removed.
: I've bitten my tongue and kept silent all through this thread, but
: I must now speak up and proclaim the truth about this harmful rumor.
: The *rumor* may not be "all that uncommon", but there has NEVER been
: a single proven instance of organ theft. The rumors have been circulating
: for years now, perpetuated whenever they "pop up" in a forum such as this,
: and the ramifications are VERY serious. This may seem like a "fun"
: thread, like so many in a.s.g., but the fact is that organ donation
: is very much dependent on the goodwill of donor families, and when
: rumors are rampant that the transplant industry is complicit in
: a black market, that makes donation less likely.
: (descending from my soapbox)
Actually, my brother-in-law, who is a Technical Detective has attended
Homicide classes recently at the University of Louisville where this
particular subject has been brought up. Apparently, it's more than a rumor
and it does happen.
: -- : -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=-
=-*=- : -= Jessie Blalock jcb...@clark.net =-
: -= http://www.clark.net/pub/jcblal/jcbhome.html =-
: -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=-
RFerrie
> : malicious rumors. This did occur to a friend of hers, and it was reported to
> : the New York police. It may not make the papers, but somehow I seriously
> : doubt it has "never" been proven that organ theft occurs. In any case, this
> : type of thing doesn't imply that it's the transplant industry who's to blame,
> : but rather underground doctors willing to take the risk for a huge profit.
> <sigh>....it's always a "friend of a friend"....
>
> Let's change the punctuation a little, from
> it has "never" been proven
> it has never been PROVEN.
>
> Nothing more than rumors. I reiterate....there has NEVER been a
> PROVEN case in the United States of an individual having an organ
> surgically "stolen" from their body.
>
> : Sure, the practice is repugnant. But the fact of the matter is that there is
> : a perpetual shortage of organ donors out there, and thousands of people die
> : each year because they couldn't receive a transplant of a necessary organ in
> : time. Thus, it's quite logical that a black market would rise up to cover
> : people who can't get transplants for whatever reason (and there are plenty
> : of reasons people are rejected as transplant recipients) and are desperate
> : enough to avoid death that they'd pay practically any price to do so.
>
> There are a whole lot of repugnant practices, some of the main ones being
> that one can _legally_ buy a living donor kidney in India, and it's quite
> easy to do so quasi-legally in other developing nations. No need to
> kidnap anyone, just offer $10,000 to a desperately poor person.
>
> And then there's Mainland China, where the freshly harvested kidneys of
> executed political prisoners are sold to wealthy Hong Kong chinese.
>
> But here are the main reasons that kidnapping organ "donors" is
> absurd:
> those victims have not been tissue-typed (or even blood-typed), so
> there's no way of knowing that there will be an acceptable
> donor-recipient match.
> if you're THAT desperate and/or wealthy, why not just hire someone
> to be a living donor? Heck, I'd sell one of my kidneys for
> $75,000 if I got the offer - no need to slip ME a mickey!
>
> I don't want to drag this out, as it's not related to gossip,
> so I invite anyone with questions on this matter to visit
> the newsgroup bit.listserv.transplant, or else visit my
> home page at http://www.clark.net/pub/jcblal/jcbwork.html
> which has links to all the main transplant URLs.
>
And more to the point, go to alt.folklore.urban where they've been
hashing out this one for ages.
Oliver Postlethwaite
In article <4qd7ii$e...@clarknet.clark.net>,
J C Blalock <jcb...@clark.net> wrote:
[lots and lots of stuff snipped]
>Nothing more than rumors. I reiterate....there has NEVER been a
>PROVEN case in the United States of an individual having an organ
>surgically "stolen" from their body.
I went over to alt.folklore.urban since this topic comes up a
lot there and found a few articles on the topic but nothing
definitive that I could re-post here. Anyway, I wonder who has
the guts (har, har!) to cross-post this thread over there --
I imagine an asg vs. afu flame war would be something to see.
Oliver
-------------------------------------------------------------
Oliver Postlethwaite - Preferred e-mail: ol...@magi.com
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
Disclaimer: The views expressed by me are not those of Nortel
Paul Brandt
>: : isn't all that uncommon. The black market for kidneys is apparently quite
>: : lucrative, and a person can easily continue to live on one after having the
>: : other removed.
>: I've bitten my tongue and kept silent all through this thread, but
>: I must now speak up and proclaim the truth about this harmful rumor.
>
>: The *rumor* may not be "all that uncommon", but there has NEVER been
>: a single proven instance of organ theft. The rumors have been circulating
>: for years now, perpetuated whenever they "pop up" in a forum such as this,
>: and the ramifications are VERY serious. This may seem like a "fun"
>: thread, like so many in a.s.g., but the fact is that organ donation
>: is very much dependent on the goodwill of donor families, and when
>: rumors are rampant that the transplant industry is complicit in
>: a black market, that makes donation less likely.
>
It must be true. I saw it Law and Order.
PaulX
Mary Campbell
Oliver Postlethwaite (opo...@bnr.ca) writes:
> In article <4qd7ii$e...@clarknet.clark.net>,
> J C Blalock <jcb...@clark.net> wrote:
>
> [lots and lots of stuff snipped]
>
>>Nothing more than rumors. I reiterate....there has NEVER been a
>>PROVEN case in the United States of an individual having an organ
>>surgically "stolen" from their body.
>
> I went over to alt.folklore.urban since this topic comes up a
> lot there and found a few articles on the topic but nothing
> definitive that I could re-post here.
It seems that there's *always* an article on this topic in afu -- along
with Richard Gere and the gerbils and is-Jamie-Lee-Curtis-a-hermaphrodite
-- but the afu FAQ claims to have the last word on the subject. This is a
statement from UNOS, an agency contracted by the US Dept. of Health to
administer the National Organ Procurement and Transplant Network and
monitor alleged US involvement in illegal organ trafficking. According to
UNOS, there is no known evidence of a case in the United States of the
stealing of an organ in this fashion. Besides, UNOS says, the process of
transplanting organs is so delicate and requires such a large team of
skilled personnel that any organ removed or transplanted in a makeshift or
secret operation would never survive.
Anyway, I wonder
who has > the guts (har, har!) to cross-post this thread over there --
> I imagine an asg vs. afu flame war would be something to see.
>
I think they're a little bored with this particular subject over on afu,
though ... any new introduction of the guy-wakes-up-in-hotel-room-minus-
kidney story just gets a yawn and a suggestion that the clueless newbie check
out the FAQ.
There was quite a heated discussion not long ago on afu on the question of
just what is Jamie Lee Curtis's medical condition anyway, which centred on
whether or not this was any of our business ... it would have been fun to
see some of the asg regulars jump into *that* one.
Jeff Kirk
In article <4qd7ii$e...@clarknet.clark.net>, jcb...@clark.net says...
>
><sigh>....it's always a "friend of a friend"....
So sorry I never met this woman personally, Jessie, in order to avoid the
dreaded FOAF moniker.
>Let's change the punctuation a little, from
> it has "never" been proven
> to
> it has never been PROVEN.
>
>Nothing more than rumors. I reiterate....there has NEVER been a
>PROVEN case in the United States of an individual having an organ
>surgically "stolen" from their body.
Of course, it was never PROVEN that O.J. killed Nicole. And it's never been
PROVEN that 99% of the allegedly queer celebs gossiped about on a.s.g. are in
fact gay. Does this mean either one is false? No.
I don't particularly feel like getting into a lengthy debate on this,
especially since - as you noted - this is hardly showbiz gossip of any sort.
And sure, my friend could have been bullshitting me, or her friend could have
been bullshitting her. But merely because the practice has never been PROVEN
to exist doesn't necessarily mean it does NOT exist.
TL Woods
Okay, just to add my .02...
Organ theft, while not a flagrant US practice, has been recorded in a number of low
income countries around the world. While most people think if kidneys, livers, etc.,
there have been numerous reports of comatose patients in third world countries being
relieved of corneas and occasionally organs.
As for the Jamie Lee Curtis thing, I heard an account of someone who claimed to have
lived down the street from her parents when she was born. It seems that the
neighborhood gossip was that vestigial male and female genitals were present at birth.
The internal situation was similar. After explaining that the child would probably be
sterile, the doctors suggested that with corrective surgery and hormonal treatments the
child would still be relatively normal. As the outlook for 'female' reconstruction was
better the baby became a girl. Therefore, she is not a hermaphrodite.
Ty
Mary Campbell
TL Woods (two...@ix.netcom.com) writes:
> Okay, just to add my .02...
>
> As for the Jamie Lee Curtis thing, I heard an account of someone who claimed to have
> lived down the street from her parents when she was born. It seems that the
> neighborhood gossip was that vestigial male and female genitals were present at birth.
> The internal situation was similar. After explaining that the child would probably be
> sterile, the doctors suggested that with corrective surgery and hormonal treatments the
> child would still be relatively normal. As the outlook for 'female' reconstruction was
> better the baby became a girl. Therefore, she is not a hermaphrodite.
>
There are lots of theories about Jamie Lee's gender on alt.folklore.urban
including, as well as the one you've mentioned, some story about an
unfortunate accident during circumcision that turned James into Jamie.
The most commonly held theory over on afu, though, seems to be that she
is genetically male, born with an X and Y chromosome, but without
testosterone receptors. As I understand it, with this syndrome the child
starts to develop in the womb as a male but, in the absence of testosterone
receptors, is born as a female but is infertile and somewhat taller and with
leaner muscle mass than the average woman. No-one on afu has been able to
produce any evidence to prove this story that I have seen, but it does seem
to be the most popular version there.
None Today Thanks
NEWSWEEK, International edition, June 26, 1995
Too Good to Be True
Tall Tales: Everyone's heard the heartbreaking stories about Third World kids
being killed of their internal organs. Just one problem: they're false.
There are some stories that are too good to be true. And then there are
stories like the one that swept through Carapicuiba, a poor suburb to the
west of Sao Paulo, Brazil that are so terrible that they are believed. It
began in April when worried parents began to ring the local newspaper: what
did the papers know about the gang - two men dressed as clowns and a woman
dressed as a ballerina - that was luring children into a Volkswagen van,
murdering them and carving out their vital organs for transplant into rich
foreigners? Within days the tales grew wilder: the body snatchers were said
to be using a half-naked blond woman to entice children. "Eyewitnesses" came
forward: one woman claimed she knew of a school where a clown snatched a boy
and delivered his body, minus a few organs, to his home the next day in a
garbage bag.
Sao Paulo’s newspapers leaped into the act. They jumped on the tale
of infant Eduardo Feliciano Oliveira Jr., who had died suddenly at a local
hospital. An autopsy revealed his eyes were missing and his abdomen stuffed
with sawdust. Neither his parents nor their lawyer alleged he was killed for
his organs - they suspect they were removed to cover up a possible medical
malpractice - but the incident helped fuel the snatcher hysteria. Headlines
like The Gang of Clowns Terrifies Schools splashed across front pages. And
it was a great story, only lacking a few things: real names and real victims.
For two months local police investigated the rumors without turning up so
much as a red rubber nose. "This was a lie and farce. These were poor and
ignorant people, and we had to calm them," says Carapicuiba police chief
Brasilio Machado.
The story is preposterous, bunk, hokum. Murderous clowns? Fatal
ballerinas? Wasn’t that on the old Avenger TV show? But it has been taken
seriously by millions of people, and it’s only a matter of time before new
rumors of kids being murdered so their organs can be sold in the United
States pop up elsewhere. Since it was first reported, in 1987 in Honduras,
this story has become unstoppable, an urban folk tale that now girdles the
world. It has been heard throughout Latin America, India, the Philippines,
Romania, Thailand, Puerto Rico and South Korea. With roots as ancient as the
blood libel that medieval Christians used against Jews - and as modern as
the movie "Coma", the 1977 medical thriller, - this nonsense has sparked
resolutions by the European Parliament and a U.N. inquiry as well as
articles, two TV documentaries and at least one book.
Terribly beaten: All it lacks is a single cold cadaver. A sophisticated
person might regard this as funny - if it weren’t for the painful
consequences of the body-parts myth in the real world. Innocent people have
been beaten and maimed by enraged mobs who thought they were acting
suspiciously around local children. In March 1994, an American woman, June
Weinstock, was terribly beaten in Guatemala after a village woman accused
here of trying to snatch her son; Weinstock is still incapacitated.
The story has cost lives in other ways, too. Lifesaving organ
donation - low to begin with throughout Latin America - have dropped even
lower. And "it has had a devastating effect" on international adoptions,
says Susan Cox, president of Holt Adoption Services in Oregon, one of the
agencies that annually help place about 8,000 children with U.S. parents. In
Turkey, officials outlawed foreign adoptions after the organ-thieves myth
took hold.
Tracing the trail of the rumor is like following a virus. Each twist
and turn in its tortuous journey along the media food chain has been
documented by both the U.S. Information Agency, in a 42-page paper by staff
officer Todd Levental published last year, and separately by French
folklorist Veroniqu Campion-Vincent. Their research shows how easily
whispers of allegation can be transformed into pseudofact. The story began
in January 1987, when Leonardo Villeda Bermudez, a former high official with
the Honduran Committee for Social Welfare, mentioned the rumors in an
interview in the local press, Bermudez shortly insisted he was misquoted,
that he was referring to the rumors as rumors, but the fire was set. Local
papers ran with the scoop without bothering to check it out, and the story
was picked up by the Reuters wire. The following month it popped up in
Guatemala.
A few months later, in April, Pravada picked up the Honduras tale,
conveniently ignoring the subsequent denials. (This was the cold war,
remember?) It handed it off to Tass, the Soviet news agency, which
distributed the story to left-leaning outlets all over the world. In Latin
America, the Cubans eagerly spread the lie in order to discredit their
ideological enemy to the north, according to the USIA.
The rumor received a big push in 1988, when it was embraced by the
International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL). A nongovernmental
organization accredited to the United Nations, the IADL has been described as
a Soviet front group. It submitted tow reports to the United Nations that
described the growing black market for transplant organs and demanded
international action. The office of the secretary-general rejected both
reports for lack of evidence. But in September, a French Communist member of
the European Parliament cited the discredited IADL reports as the basis of a
resolution condemning the nonexistent traffic; it passed. With the EP’s
imprimatur, the story acquired "official" status. Pushed by Cuba, the World
Health Organization drafted transplant guidelines that made the phony problem
an official U.N. concern.
Onward and onward, the rumor spun across the world. It grew with
each retelling, becoming "true" because so many officials, authorities and
recognized experts said it was so. Some might have had ideological axes to
grind. Others, all too aware of the very real evils that prey on children in
the world, apparently were ready to believe the worst about human nature.
That may explain the behavior of Prof. Vitit Mantarbhorn, a noted Thai human
rights advocate who has been an active defender of children’s rights in his
homeland. In 1990, as a "special rapporteur" to the world body, he was
commissioned by the U. N. Economic and Social Council to write a report on
how children are exploited worldwide. His final report, released early last
year, found "mounting evidence of a market for children’s organs." His
evidence? Vitit cites a story told by Nepalese police about children being
trafficked into India. That’s it. No names. No details. No specific
incidents.
Vitit, who quit the United Nations shortly after the report was
released, refused to be interviewed by NEWSWEEK. In a handwritten fax he
asserted that "the facts and findings on the ‘organs’ issue are to be found
in the various U.N. reports submitted by me between 1990-1994." But Myriam
Tebourbi, who collaborated on the report, says, "We never had any real
evidence. He had lots of allegations, but nothing concrete... We had no
resources to mount our own investigation."
Plenty of journalists also swallowed the myth whole, jettisoning or
ignoring facts that get in the way of what is admittedly a compelling fable.
Consider "The Body Parts Business," a British-Canadian TV documentary that
has been broadcast in about 20 countries. It featured two purported victims
of this terrible trade. One was Pedro Reggi of Argentina, who claimed on
camera that his corneas had been removed while he was a patient at a mental
hospital.
Four days after the program was aired in Britain in November 1993,
Reggi’s half brother told an Argentine TV interviewer that Pedro had actually
lost his eyes as a result of infection while an infant. Medical records
supported the half brother’s account. (In a French film, "Organ Thieves,"
the mother of a 10 year old boy told a similar story; a subsequent
investigation revealed that the child was also blinded by an infection.) The
other purported victim, a Honduran boy who claimed to have escaped from the
body snatchers uncut turned out to be a hoaxer, too.
Judy Jackson, who produced "The Body Parts Business," offers no
apology for the lack of proof. "It’s largely urban myth, word of mouth...You
can never track it down," she told NEWSWEEK. Yet she is convinced that the
organ trade is real and growing. In this world of mirrors, the fact that the
U.S. government has officially refuted the story somehow is the best proof
that a problem exists. "Someone at a very high level clearly decided to deny
it all, " she says.
No market: How do you prove a murder did not occur? That is the dilemma
confronting doctors, public-health officials and adoption workers who have
been vainly trying to contain the rumor. For starters, they point to the
fact that organ sales are illegal in America. The entire U.S. transplant
system is highly controlled by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS),
which registers and tracks each donated organ. A black market for imported
organs simply does not exist; for 18,000 transplants performed in the States
last year, no more than 25 organs were imported - most of them from Canada.
Moreover, the shelf life of human organs is measured in hours: as little as 4
for a heart, 48 to 72 for a kidney. "You can’t just turn up with a kidney in
a cooler and say to some hospital, ‘Hey, are you interested.’" says Joel
Newman, a spokesman for the UNOS.
But this rumor doesn’t listen to reason. After centuries of
exploitation, many poor Latin Americans have no trouble believing that
foreign criminals are out to snatch their kids. Folklorist Campion-Vincent
may have uncovered another reason. Writing in a 1990 issue of Western
Folklore, a journal of the California Folklore Society, she notes that though
body snatching is a myth, illegal adoptions by wealthy foreigners are a real
albeit small, problem. The body-parts rumor began to spread at the same time
that illegal adoption rackets were uncovered in both Honduras and Guatemala;
children of unknown origin were discovered in so-called fattening houses,
from which they were sold to overseas couples. Adoption is still an alien
concept in much of Latin America. "The humanitarian impulse of the First
World is totally misunderstood in the many countries where these rumors
arise," says Bill Pierce, chairman of the Washington-based National Council
for Adoption. "In that culture it can be really impossible to understand why
a couple of middle-class white Americans would want to adopt such a child.
The ‘logical’ answer is that they must want to profit from the child in some
way." It’s sometimes easier to imagine the evil within the human heart than
to perceive the real mercy.
Mark Frankel with John Barry in Washington,
David Schrieberg in Sao Paulo and bureau reports
None Today Thanks
jo...@iglou.com (Clarksville Street Department) wrote:
>Actually, my brother-in-law, who is a Technical Detective has attended
>Homicide classes recently at the University of Louisville where this
>particular subject has been brought up. Apparently, it's more than a rumor
>and it does happen.
Then he should be able to come up with someone who's been arrested shouldn't
he? This is what's meant by "never been proven". No names, isn't
technically feasible, no one arrested, no bodies, nothing, nothing, nothing,
but arrogant, callous assholes who think they're having fun by pulling the
wool over the eyes of the credulous, and the ignorant fools who pass it on
because someone told them it was true.
Well now someone is telling you that your cute story is costing someone their
life right now, today! It could be child, a baby, a mother with small
children, a man with children. These are real people ending up as real
bodies! On average there's 8 a day. Less than a third of people who could
allow donation, and save some of these people, will do so. Understandably,
few of the people who say no can explain why they want the people on the
waiting lists to die. They just know that transplantation is something
unsavory, and they don't want their loved one's body to be involved in
anything like that.
Stating, even in this group, that no proof exists that the stories AREN'T
true simply shows the ignorance of the speaker. The person who actually
believes that every wild story has to be DISPROVEN is pitiable. Scam artists
couldn't survive without this kind of person. Using this argument to
obfuscate the issues reveals the speaker to be true scum. The reason this
particular rumor has swept the world and refuses to die is that some have
found it politically expedient to promote it.
As it happens, the harm that this kind of ignorant myth has caused HAS caused
people to investigate it, many times. This information is freely available
to anyone with the intelligence to look. The USIA reports are available at
gopher://info.med.yale.edu:70/11/Disciplines/Disease/Transplant/Myths
and
http://www.usia.gov/topics/bp-unrep.txt
and it's all summarized concisely in the Newsweek article I'm posting after
this.
It's understandable that there would be people confused about this. These
people don't have access to information and don't know what to think.
Without any other information they are forced to treat this as a possible
threat. The people who continue to promote this deadly stupid myth, even
after reading the facts, are beyond help. There are such things as
sociopaths. The lowest kind of humanoid scum does, in fact, exist.
Clarksville Street Department
None Today Thanks (nob...@nowhere.com) wrote:
: NEWSWEEK, International edition, June 26, 1995
June 26, *1995*. The story I have heard happened within the last year.
Let's all just call a truce on this one. I don't think anyone *here* can
prove or disprove *organnapping*.
: Too Good to Be True
PaulX
>None Today Thanks (nob...@nowhere.com) wrote:
>: NEWSWEEK, International edition, June 26, 1995
>
>June 26, *1995*. The story I have heard happened within the last year.
>Let's all just call a truce on this one. I don't think anyone *here* can
>prove or disprove *organnapping*.
>
Well, as soon as I determine if my missing left testicle was
organnapped or I just misplaced it, I will detail its dispostition
herein.
PaulX (and the rest of his organs)
Absolut Queer
>Yet Another Steve (Steve_H...@qmail4.nba.TRW.COM) writes:
>> In article <31ce236b...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>, pau...@ix.netcom.com
>> (PaulX) wrote:
>>
>> [organ-napping urban legend snipped]
>>
>>> Well, as soon as I determine if my missing left testicle was
>>> organnapped or I just misplaced it, I will detail its dispostition
>>> herein.
>>
>>
>> If I were prone to conspiracy theories, I'd worry that this might relate to
>> the "mountain oysters" thread currently going on over in rec.food.cooking,
>> where various bread-'em-and-fry-'em recipes have been dissed by a New Zealand
>> lady who (I *hope* confusing 'mountain oysters' with 'prairie oysters' [raw
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> eggs]) says:
>^^^^^^^^^
>Just to make things more confusing, though ... what people in the
>Mid-West USA call mountain oysters (fried bull or sheep testicles) are
>called prairie oysters in Canada.
>>
>>> Mt oysters are not fried in this country, they are eaten raw!
>>
>> Steve
>> *really* hoping that JAne will reassure me on this
>>
OK, my oyster knowledge in a nutshell.
Bluff oysters are expensive $12/dozen, and MUST be eaten raw!
Other oyster (shellfish variety) are ok, and cooking is allowed if
bread crumed.
Mountain oyster (shepp bollocks) are something I know nothing about
Pariaire Oyster (egg) are best doen as Green eggs and ham.
Oyerts also have a fascinating zoology whihc I soent a usless 6 months
learning about for a degree, I can spew all that info if you really
want.
JAne
Absolut Queer
ASGTPR#17
Official(!) ASGTP [mad] Scientist
Benevolent Co-Dictator Elect
"Science is like being God, only I have time and budget constraints"