Give Life....only to take it back in a divorce?

Generally when people donate organs, whether they are living donors or not, they are doing so because they and their family members want to share life with all people who need a second chance. All major religions support organ donation as a truly selfless act of compassion that one can fulfill.

So what's with a New York surgeon who took the Hippocratic Oath before practicing, became a living donor of a kidney to his wife, and now, in the midst of a messy divorce, he wants his kidney back. That, or $1.5 million dollars for compensation of the organ when he discovered that his wife was having an extramarital affair.

Richard Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center on Long Island, says that he is seeking compensation for the kidney he donated to his wife, Dawnell, in 2001. Richard Batista says she began having an extramarital affair after the transplant.

"There's no deeper pain or betrayal from somebody you loved and devoted your whole life to," he told reporters Wednesday.

Richard Batista said he went public with his request after becoming frustrated with ongoing divorce negotiations...

Dr. David Cronin, the director of liver transplantation at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has been performing liver, kidney and pancreas transplants for more than a decade. He says a price tag cannot be placed on a human organ.

"Any efforts that have been made to sell organs, broker organs … have come up and been squashed," he said about Richard Batista's legal tactic.

Cronin likened donations from live donors to a contract in which the donor agrees to give up the organ to the recipient and expect nothing in return.

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 says that an organ donation from a living donor is a gift and is not eligible for "valuable consideration."

...As far as Richard Batista's getting his kidney back from his soon-to-be ex? That isn't going to happen either, according to Cronin.

"That's just foolish," he said.

But if a judge were to award the surgeon compensation for the kidney specifically and not just divorce-related damages, that could challenge the notion of organs as gifts.

Cronin likened the whole story to a soap opera, calling it an "entertainment blip."

While the anger that Batista feels is understandable, nothing justifies reclaiming an organ given to save another's life. His actions cast a terrible shadow of misconception onto the issue of organ donation which already is an extremely misunderstood by so many.

No price should be placed on a human life, nor on human organs that save them. For a surgeon to demand his kidney back, knowing full well that he faces far greater risks of infection in such action as well as the inherent demise of his ex-wife's health potentially killing her, is nothing more than revenge.

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For reliable information on organ donation, please visit this website: Gift of Life.