The Dilemma of Kidney Transplantation in China

The Dilemma of Kidney Transplantation in China

Recently, a young man has attracted the attention of many Chinese people. This young man, called Liu Fei, has being suffering from the End Stage Renal Failure for one year. His mother’s kidney is suitable to him for transplantation, but his mother refused and left home, which provokes a heated discussion among Chinese people.

Liu Fei was born in a poor family in Sichuan province. Their life mainly depends on the money made by his parents in taking part time jobs. When he was diagnosed as the End Stage Renal Failure, he left school and leased a tricycle to make money for dialysis. In China, there are many people without medical care in some poor areas, which means that some treatments are usually unaffordable to them, such as dialysis and kidney transplantation. The problem of kidney transplantation lies not only in the shortage of money but also in the limited kidney source. Chinese people who are unwilling to donating their kidney is not the persons without loving hearts but they owning a traditional thought that they must have a intact body to rebirth after their death and their children consider it is an important filial piety to keep their parents in whole bodies. In addition, many people hesitate to donate their kidneys because they think it is harmful to their health and may make them lose the ability of working.

Condemned by so many people, the mother of Liu Fei expressed her thought that if she donates her kidney to her son, there will be two patients in this poor family and they can not afford the medical fee after transplantation. Maybe this mother indeed has no choice but to make money and wait for another suitable kidney towards her son, or maybe she is scared to take the responsibility as a mother, but it is really a dilemma in China among patients with the End Stage Renal Failure. Besides complaining the underdeveloped economic conditions, what else can we do? Is there really no other choice for those patients apart from kidney transplantation and dialysis?

Actually, according to each patient’s medical conditions, as long as their surviving nephrons are in protection and the damaged nephrons can be recovered enough or even partially, there is a chance for them to get rid of dialysis, prolong their lives and even need not to receive kidney transplantation.

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