Charity ends with race
in one of the worst instances of racism in recent times, a hospital in uk, accepted a kidney from a donor who put a condition that it would not be transplanted on a "coloured' person.
The incident occurred at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, where the donor died earlier this year. The organ was sent to the national transplant service, which matches organs to donors. The kidney was then sent for transplant, with information about the conditions attached to it. It is not known whether the condition was made by the donor or the donor's family. A bbc television investigation has since revealed that the organ had been transferred to a white patient.
The incident, which sent shock waves across the uk, has particularly caused great resentment among the country's ethnic minorities as well as medical professionals. The Government has also launched an enquiry into this incident. Bernie Grant, a black mp , described it as "an outrage of enormous proportions,' while Makbool Javaid, an official with the home ministry's race relation forum, said it was the "worst form of discrimination one could imagine'.
The medical fraternity was also quick to condemn the unfortunate incident. A health department statement said: "The Government is totally against any kind of conditions being attached to organ donation. It is also a widely accepted practice in the transplant community not to accept conditions. Donated organs are a national resource which is available to people regardless of age, religion, age or other circumstances.' Vinnie Nathanson, head of the ethics committee of the British Medical Association ( bma ) said: "The whole concept of transplant donation is altruistic