Denial of visa stymies Filipino organ donors

[KamaAina]

I sure do feel a whole lot safer without having to worry about all those subversive organ donors running around... </sarcasm>

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/13/ln/ln06a.html

In the Philippines, his son, Glenn, studies architecture and waits with a life-saving kidney that is considered a near-perfect match for his father. But the U.S. government won't grant the 28-year-old a temporary visa because he can't prove he'll return to the Philippines.

The U.S. Consulate in Manila says the Lawag City resident fits the profile of an undesirable visitor — someone who poses a risk of overstaying a temporary visa because of his background and his homeland's tenuous situation....

The Guerreros' plight is not uncommon at St. Francis, the only organ transplant center in the Central Pacific. There are at least 15 Filipino patients there who face the same bureaucratic roadblocks to getting a visa for an organ donor, and all have been rejected. They have all but given up hope of bringing their relatives to the United States for the life-saving surgery. No patients are known to have died while trying to cut the red tape after finding a donor match. But hospital officials said many Filipinos have a rare blood type and die while waiting for a kidney because they never find a match....

"We don't determine between a medical visit or a trip to Disneyland," said Kelly Shannon, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the U.S. State Department. "Congress wrote the law, and it is virtually unchanged since 1952. It requires the assumption of an intention to emigrate. You have to show a reason to compel your return home."

A trip to Disneyland?! What a moran. I can just see it now: a row of simulated dialysis patients in traditional national costume, craking out in unison: "It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world!" </sarcasm>