"Kidney or Divorce?"

When you walk down that aisle and make that committment, "Until death do us part" you're suppose to mean it. Being married and in love means you will do anything and everything for your husband or wife. Dr. Richard Batista's wife, Dawnell Batista, needed a kidney and he gave her one. But, when push comes to shove, and she files for a divorce, he asks for it back.

If doesn't get his kidney back, his attorney, Dominic Barbara of Garden City, said his client wants $1.5 million, which reflects in part the value of the kidney transplant. Robert Veatch, a medical ethicist at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics, noted that "it's illegal for an organ to be exchanged for anything of value." Organs in the United States can't be bought or sold. Being an organ don

or or actually just giving an organ away is a gift. Any human being should be thankful for receiving a "gift" like this and any individual giving this gift should feel and think very highly of themselves. It is the least selfish thing they could ever possibly do. "It's her kidney now and . . . taking the kidney out would mean she would have to go on dialysis or it would kill her," Veatch said. Going through a divorce can probably be one of the most heart breaking situations to go through. It can either end on good or bad terms. Not terms in which you are physically taking back an organ that is keeping someone alive; that's just sick and insane.

Supposibly Batista didn't even really want his kidney back. He said it was in exchange for visitation rights with his three children. He donated his kidney to her in June 2001 after she had undergone two other failed transplants when her kidneys stopped working. His first goal was to save her and his second goal was turn the marriage around. Their marriage was shakey because of her illness. In June 2005, Dawnell filed for the divorce. Batista said he was happy with his gift of life: "I was walking on a cloud. I did the right thing for her and to this day I would do it again!" In all, demanding for his kidney back was just a fake. In reality, he was fighting for his children, he just didn't go about it in the correct way!

Images are from flikr.