My husband is being forced to donate a kidney. What I learned about this law should concern everyone.
“‘Mr. McNab, they’ll schedule your pre-op appointment at check-out for a date in the next month and a half,’ he made kidney surgery sound like protocol for every physical. He was so fast and casual — I just froze.
My sweet, gentle husband is sitting stiff and unblinking in our living room, recounting this recent visit.
“I finally told him, ‘I need to talk to my wife — I can’t just have major surgery because some new law says so.
“But he didn’t slow down, ‘Reschedule if you must, but my legal records need to show I’ve met the timeline regarding your extra kidney. See you next time.’ And he just left, like it was nothing.”
He finally blinks, once, long and slow. I’ve never seen him in shock.
I’m hiding my rising panic behind supportive eye contact and measured breathing. I wish I’d been there to ask questions but no forty-two-year-old wants his wife at his annual physical. This was supposed to be a standard healthcare visit but it’s left him in worse condition!
Questions swirl in my head but I keep them small, “do you have an extra kidney?”
“No — I have the two normal kidneys! But the doctor says I only need one to survive so, I have to talk to a donation person within six weeks of our appointment or his practice can be sued. It’s in the law!”
My calm exterior dissolves into silent mouth shapes for questions coming too fast for coherence. Thankfully, Scott continues before I have to make sense.
“I thought he was pranking me — I asked if it was a terrible joke? He said ‘75,000 people are waiting for organs and you only need one kidney to survive. They’re taking men’s kidneys because women’s are too small to function well in men’s bodies.’ This is real. They’re starting with my age group forty to sixty.”
Now, I’m frozen in shock. What in the unholy hell is happening in Nashville? I explode into a rant:
I’m all for saving lives but they can’t just take your kidney because theirs don’t work! Yes — I’m sure years of kidney dialysis are exhausting and expensive and emotionally hard but this is the opposite of a donation — it’s robbery! It’s not like you’re hoarding a pile of kidneys and won’t notice if they take one. This is half of your kidneys! Why should a stranger’s need outrank your own? This is not freedom! Who are these kidney people?!
He shakes his head so slightly that I immediately regret my rant.
“I don’t know. The doctor says the law will eventually expand to reach boys just after puberty. I don’t know what’s happening.”
He curls his 6’1” frame into fetal position, putting his head on my lap. I’ve never seen something hit him so hard. This sweet man is realizing that his sense of self — his foundational Jenga piece of existence — is being removed, and the destruction is compounding. I just shouted at a poor tumbling man. I want to destroy the people that are pulling this piece.
After a few moments, he retreats into his iPad and I dive into my own screen, researching this supposed new law HB2779. It’s worse than I imagined.
Yes, they’re coming for his kidney but we’ll be responsible for medical bills! Pre-op, post-op, insurance adjustments, recovery time, lost income, and any lingering medical issues because of this. They only cover the surgery and we’re still paying for something we did not choose.
There’s no medical loophole for his age or other conditions: if the surgery is a danger to him, they still do it because the recipient is a higher-risk priority! He doesn’t even need to match with a specific donor because the need is big enough. They may not even place his kidney! He’s being reduced to a walking domestic organ supplier.
And it gets worse.
The law persuades surgeries because it allows anyone to sue a doctor that doesn’t report a double kidney and anyone who facilitates this omission for $10,000 minimum and coverage of all legal fees. This means every doctor, nurse, medical chart assistant, or scheduler who sees your chart and notices you haven’t scheduled your surgery can sue all of those same people! Coworkers will be suing each other to cover themselves! Worse: a complete stranger can sue your entire doctor’s office if they don’t see a surgery scar on your husband at the pool!
They’re forcing us to risk our lives and liberty for a kidney that may not even function in another body! Is this in the best interest of my husband or just following an arbitrary law to increase kidney supply? This is kidney farming!
Conclusion: strangers have access to my husband’s body simply because he’s in the law’s demographic bracket.
If we allow the law to control our internal organs, we are not free — we are animals, growing for a harvest.
This story is sparked from hearing men say, “I stay out of abortion stuff because it’s not my issue.” Bodily autonomy is everybody’s issue. This story is fabricated but researched:
· Suing the doctors, staff, and friends involved in abortion care are current laws in Texas, Idaho, and Tennessee (the actual bill is listed in my story). Yes, even the rapist’s family can sue.
· We do in fact only need one kidney to survive, does that give the government the right to control the function of our internal organs? (For those interested, live kidney donation is wonderful.)
If we allow a precedent of legal overreach to hold a woman’s organs captive to outside decision-makers, it can swing into your organs. I need the men in the room to see this and understand: abortion is akin to removing your kidney because legislation controls your organs, not you. How does this idea make you feel, act, vote?
Protect every human being’s bodily autonomy, all sexes.
If children are the issue, why are there still kids in our adoption and foster systems? Forcing births adds to this group.
Abortion is not about babies — it’s about control. Like with Jenga, a destabilized person is busy trying to gather the pieces of their life (finances, housing, education, healthcare) instead of being an aware, educated, and empowered citizen. This second group is a threat to the ruling class, the first isn’t.
Forcing pregnant humans to give birth is a bloody overreach that brings unwanted children into society because the people forcing these opinions don’t bear the direct physical, financial, or emotional consequences of this new human.
