I used to work in aviation. I still have lots of friends who work at airports. Some of them work at LAX.
After Ramadan (last one ended on August 31), there is always a reliable influx of Saudi heavy metal to LAX. One prince comes with four 767s. Several of the poorer relations are reduced to having to travel on a single private 747.
My friends got a tour on one of the 747s. Gold toilets, rare inlaid woods, expensive art, priceless carpets in the bedrooms - nothing out of the ordinary.
Back at the tail of the airplane there was a separate cabin with six seats. This was comparative poverty - just six regular first-class-sized seats in a normal airliney-looking space. No frills. Good legroom. The cabin was closed off from the rest of the plane with a lockable door that happened to be open while the plane was being serviced on the ground.
One of my friends asked what that compartment was all about, and her Saudi counterpart answered, "This is where the live donors sit."
"Hunh?" I asked my friend at this point in the story.
"That's what I said," she told me.
If this prince needs a liver on the fly, or if some unruly Los Angeles motorist crosses Rodeo Drive at an inopportune moment and mangles one of His Highness's hands or those of one of his wives, say someone's kidney quits unexpectedly or things start to look a little cloudy through an old cornea - the body parts are right there. No questions asked, no pesky transplant waiting lists, no fuss, no muss, blood types and any other issues - and tissues - tidily anticipated. And there are six living bodies to choose from, male and female.
Being a country that thrives, much like our own, on equality and democratic order, it is no surprise that under Saudi law, donors are completely protected. In fact, their healthcare futures might even be envied by many of us here in the Third World.
The link is to a World Health Organization report in which we learn that:
A law passed in Saudi Arabia in October envisages just this: that the government pays a monetary “reward” of 50 000 riyals (US$ 13 300) and other benefits, including life-time medical care for unrelated organ donors in a system regulated at the national level. The law’s supporters said it would stop Saudi citizens from traveling to China, Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines and other countries to receive organ transplants.
Yeah! No more going to China, Egypt or Pakistan. Now they can come here and do it right.
But what happens to these people in American hospitals? Is their Saudi contract for body parts recognized here? Can you get a liver transplant from your bring-along liver donor here in the States? Are the arrangements for this taken care of, and if so, wouldn't it be nice to know what they are? If you bring your own, can doctors ignore our vaunted waiting-list system?
And the government pays. Perhaps this makes this service available to everyone. Perhaps it just legalizes the system of bringalong donors and socializes the cost.
At least we can all start feeling better about the increasing number of billionaires in America. If all they want is decent, Saudi-style healthcare and the opportunity to make sure the rest of us never have to suffer the indignity of flying coach again, I can't see how this isn't a sign of better times ahead for everyone.