US man wants value of kidney in divorce settlement

When his wife needed a kidney transplant, Dr Richard Batista gave her one of his, attorney Dominic Barbara said.
Now that Dawnell Batista has filed for a divorce, Richard Batista wants his kidney back as part of his settlement demand. Or, Barbara said today, his client wants the value of that kidney: An estimated $1.5m (£993,000).
"My first priority was to save her life," Batista said at a news conference in Garden City. "The second bonus was to turn the marriage around."
First and foremost, said Robert Veatch, a medical ethicist at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics, "it's illegal for an organ to be exchanged for anything of value". Organs in the US may not be bought or sold. Donating an organ is a gift and legally "when you give something, you can't get it back", he said.
"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.
Nor can you assign a subsequent monetary value to an organ, Caplan said. "There's nothing later [you can get] in terms of compensation if you regret your gift," he said.

Summary: Guy marries girl and gives her a kidney, she divorces him and he wants $1.5 or the kidney.

I like this guys style. You file for divorce - no problem, but I want my kidney back. And then I am going to eat it with some fava beans and a nice Chanti. Does Chanti go well with kidney? I know that liver and chanti are a beautiful pairing, but you may want more of a Shiraz with kidney. I think Merlot would be too dry and Oakie and no one drinks Pinot anymore that is so '04-'05.

Oh you want to keep the kidney, no problem. Cut me a check for $1.5... It has been a couple years since I've priced out my organs, but I don't think it's worth more than $900k. I mean they hand those things out on the street in Sao Paulo.

The most disturbing thing is that "it's illegal for an organ to be exchanged for anything of value" because that was my back up career. Well it looks like Uncle Sweet Dick is going to have to go to his back up - back up career and donate another "organ" to the laaaaaydies.... one inch at a time....YEAH.... Too much? Was that too much? I can never tell.