After a recent scandal in Vietnam, the Red Cross cautions that selling your kidney for an iPhone should just be a joke or an online meme.
Dr. Nith, a Vietnamese clinic in Laos, shared a photo on social media of three patients wearing bleeding bandages and holding up the new iPhone 14. Clearly, it meant that you should sacrifice your kidney in order to get the most recent iPhone.
This was merely supposed to be a marketing joke, but it generated quite a stir in Thailand and Vietnam when it went viral on social media.
People began to take it seriously, and it spread to the point that a Red Cross official had to publicly condemn it, just in case it was taken at face value.
The picture has now been removed from various social media platforms.
According to Sophon Mekthon, the managing director of the Thai Red Cross Society’s Organ Donation Centre, the picture is immoral and improper, and people should not be encouraged to sell their organs.
He also reminded people that organ trading is forbidden in Thailand.
There is no such thing as organ trade.
That is not permitted. It is unacceptable to advocate selling organs, particularly to get funds to purchase an iPhone. It is morally and ethically unacceptable.
Instead, the Red Cross representative advised individuals to register with the Thai Red Cross Organ Donation Centre in order to be organ donors after death.
He also said that there is a donor shortage, with over 6,000 persons on a waiting list.
As a response, almost 2 million individuals have already registered with the Thai Red Cross Organ Donation Center.
