A Facebook post from Laos has gone viral and has angered many for its insecure message about the expensive new iPhone. The post was titled “Agreeing to the iPhone 14” and featured three men holding their new Apple phones and lifting their shirts, showing straps on their stomachs implying they had to afford the trendy gadget. He sold his kidney.
The new iPhone is retailing between 41,000 and 45,000 baht, a hefty price tag for a country like Thailand, where the minimum wage is around 9,000 baht per month, let alone Laos where the minimum wage was less than 3,000 baht per month. .
The picture sparked controversy on Facebook and was traced back to a beauty clinic in Laos, which said they had posted it as a parody. He joked that the new iPhone was so expensive that he had to sell his kidney to the doctor. And in Laos, it was taken as a joke, with many commentators joking about how much they could get for a kidney, whether it was even possible to sell an appendix, or what other things they could get with the money. .
But, when a kidney for an iPhone post started going viral in Thailand, online commenters took the photo more seriously and strongly condemned the message sent to young people. He analyzed and contrasted the image, saying that the location of the lesion resembled an appendectomy, and researched to find the photo which was taken at a Vietnamese clinic in Laos.
Some understood it was taken as a joke in Aos, but said it was no laughing matter in Thailand. The Managing Director of the Organ Donation Center under the Thai Red Cross Society called the meem unethical and inappropriate.
In Thailand, organ transplants can only be donated by a close relative under the supervision of the Thai Red Cross, and it is illegal to sell organs. People can sign up to donate their bodies for medical studies, and organs such as livers, hearts and eyes can be harvested only after death.
The director urged people to sign up with the Thai Red Cross Organ Donation Center, saying that 20 million people have signed up to donate their organs when they die, but there are currently about 6,000 people in need of donor organs. There is a waiting list. He was angered by the idea that the state could have an organ trade and said that giving people the idea that they could sell a kidney to get an iPhone was irresponsible.
“There is no organ trade. It’s prohibited. It’s unfair to suggest selling organs, especially to get money to buy an iPhone. It’s morally wrong and unethical.”
Source: Thai Newsroom and Bangkok Post
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