|
RIPE FOR THE PICKING: When sentencing Toni (left) and Sulaiman yesterday, the judge noted that their 'poor and socially disadvantaged background' had been exploited by syndicates, and they had not solicited an offer for their kidneys. -- ST ARTIST'S SKETCH: MIEL
|
WHEN a man came by his village offering Sulaiman Damanik 150 million rupiah (S$22,000) for his kidney, he quickly did his sums.
The amount was the equivalent of what he would need 16-1/2 years to earn as a labourer in Galang, a rural village in Medan, Sumatra.
Sulaiman, 26, saw the offer as a godsend: He had lost his job six months earlier, and his elderly parents depended on him for care.
For Toni, 27, the offer was even better - 186 million rupiah.
But the circumstances that made it hard to say no were much the same. He had lost his job two months earlier, his wife was expecting their third child, and mortgage payments for his house in the rural district of Nogorejo in Medan were piling up.
Both men, in effect, were ripe for the picking, a point made by District Judge Bala Reddy yesterday when he sentenced Sulaiman to two weeks' jail and a $1,000 fine, and Toni to 14 weeks' jail and a $2,000 fine.
The judge noted that they had not actively solicited an offer for their kidneys. Rather, syndicates exploited their 'poor and socially disadvantaged background'.
Of Sulaiman, Judge Reddy said: 'When he was identified by the syndicate as a potential donor, he was approached with an offer which for a person of his social and economic background would have been difficult to resist.'
As for Toni, the judge said the syndicate 'appears to have struck at the right moment' to induce him to sell his kidney, given his financial plight at that time.
The two men's backgrounds were similar. Both had only three years of secondary education and were the sole bread-winners in their families.
Sulaiman earned $120 a month as a labourer; Toni made a tad more - $140 - as a garbage collector.
Their lives, however, have taken divergent paths since they were approached by the syndicates.
Though Sulaiman agreed to donate his kidney, the operation never went through. In the end, all he received was $50 pocket money for the week he was in Singapore preparing for the operation.
Toni's kidney was taken from him, and he pocketed the 186 million rupiah.
But life has become a lot tougher for him since.
He still feels pain and gets dizzy often, and blames it on the surgery.
He is also still out of a job. A manual labourer for most of his life because of his lack of education, such jobs are now closed to him, because he cannot summon the physical strength needed for them any more.
Lawyer Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed summed up his client's current state of mind in delivering a mitigation plea: 'Although Toni received the money in exchange for his kidney, he is suffering from poor health after the operation and is very worried it would be life-threatening without good and regular medical care, which he cannot afford.'
benjamin@sph.com.sg
|
