After all, he is seeking to medically endanger (or financially bankrupt) his estranged wife in order to get a more favorable divorce settlement.

A Long Island surgeon embroiled in a nearly four-year divorce proceeding wants his estranged wife to return the kidney he donated to her, although he says he’ll settle for $1.5 million in compensation.

Dr. Richard Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center, told reporters at his lawyer’s Long Island office Wednesday that he decided to go public with his demand for kidney compensation because he has grown frustrated with the negotiations with his estranged wife. …

He said he gave his kidney to Dawnell Batista, now 44, in June 2001. She filed for divorce in July 2005, although he claims she began having an extramarital affair 18 months to two years after receiving the kidney transplant, his attorney, Dominick Barbara said.

As a physician, DOCTOR Richard Batista knows that to repossess the kidney he DONATED would be to cause Dawnell Batista irreparable physical harm – possibly including her death. So much for his Hyppocratic Oath!

And there is this minor detail, noted by Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey.

We have plenty of experience with transplants. The First Mate has had four transplants (three kidneys and a pancreas), two of which came from live donors. For the first, I planned on donating one of my kidneys, but a cadaver donor became available before I finished my tests. During the planning, it was made clear that this gift was non-refundable and non-negotiable, and in fact I signed paperwork acknowledging that, as did the two friends who later did donate live kidneys to the FM over the last five years.

Dr. Batista would have had to sign similar forms as well – so he knows that this demand is not merely unethical but also unenforceable. And then there is the minor detail that he is effectively asking for payment of $1.5 million for the organ – a violation of American law which makes the sale of human organs for transplantation illegal. Perhaps the loss of his medical license is not the only thing that needs to happen here – perhaps he needs a bit of jail time as well.