Of course. How much would you give me for this one?
Posted on 03/31/2007 5:30:57 PM PDT by TheBethsterNH
"Transplant tourism" on rise due to donor shortages By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA - "Transplant tourism" is on the rise because organ donations are not keeping up with growing demand, especially for kidneys, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The United Nations agency said it was concerned about a rise in cases where people in countries such as Pakistan, Egypt and the Philippines were persuaded to sell their body parts to outsiders, mostly through a broker.
The practice has increased over the past decade, said Luc Noel of the WHO's health technology and pharmaceuticals unit.
"We believe 5 to 10 percent of all kidneys transplanted were in 2005 transplanted in this setting," he told a news conference in Geneva, home to the WHO's headquarters.
Transplantation is increasingly regarded as the best solution to end-stage organ failure, according to the WHO.
Jeremy Chapman, a physician at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia, said medical advances in transplantation surgery have resulted in surging demand from those needing new kidneys, livers, hearts, corneas and bone marrow.
Long waiting lists for organs from cadavers have caused frustrated patients to look overseas for new sources, he said.
"The wealthy, in search of their own survival, will sometimes seek organs from the poor," Chapman said after experts convened by the WHO recommended stricter organ donation and transplantation rules to confront the practice.
Farhat Moazam of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation in Karachi, Pakistan, said increasing numbers were traveling to her country to buy kidneys.
"There are villages that are in the poorer parts of Pakistan where as many as 40 to 50 percent of the population of the village we know only has one kidney," Moazam told the briefing.
She said donors are often promised as much as 150,000 rupees ($2,500) for an organ but may only get a fraction of that after brokers' fees and associated medical costs are paid.
It is possible for healthy individuals to donate organs and tissues which they can live without, such as a kidney, part of the liver, blood or bone marrow. Living donations regularly take place in developed countries, most often between relatives.
Noel said many of those who sell their organs and tissues do not receive adequate follow-up medical care, increasing their health risks.
The slippery slope. Next... pianos.
I'm all for it. I have a uterus I don't plan to use. Any takers?
My church has an organ and we all donated money to buy it, so I guess it is okay. :-)
i wonder too about a black market of organs...like what is beginning to occur with theft of near term unborn babies for overseas black markets.
Of course. How much would you give me for this one?
I kinda figured people would make more room in their homes;)
Of course it should be legal. It is your body, you should be able to do with it as you like.
I can see an "Organ futures" market where you sell the right to collect your organs if you die in an accident.
The medical industry charges for organs that they implant, they just make sure that you or your heirs do not get any of the money.
That is why we have a shortage of organ donors in this country. Let the market work!
Musical instruments notwithstanding...there is no real ethical conundrum. I own my heart, liver, kidneys eyeballs etc. Why should I be foreced to donate them upon death. The doctors, transports teams etc all profit off my death, why shouldn't my family. It's also an incentive to live a better life healthwise if you have a chance to earn some money for your estate.
I have problems with live donors selling organs, but I don't see why the heirs of a dead person whose organs are transplanted should be the only parties who don't receive money. The hospitals and surgeons surely don't routinely give their services away for free.
And I could accent your uterus with my ovaries....
LOL!!!!........Harpsichords will be soon to follow!......
People Can Sell Sperm; Why Not Kidneys?
Doctor Says Regulated Sales Would Address Organ Shortage -- But Foes Fear Exploitation
By JOHN McKENZIE
March 31, 2007 — - It is not a solution he proposes lightly -- indeed, it is among the most controversial ideas in medicine -- but Dr. Arthur Matas, president of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, says it's now time to develop a regulated system of kidney sales.
That's right: Allow people to sell one of their kidneys to ease the growing shortage of donated organs.
Matas encourages critics to do the math: There are now more than 70,000 Americans who've lost the use of their kidneys, most from the epidemic of diabetes. But only about 16,000 kidneys are donated each year. So most patients rely on dialysis several times a week to filter their blood. It can keep them alive, but not for as long as a real kidney.
The average wait time for a donated kidney in the early 1980's was less than a year. Today, it's more than five years -- too long for many. Each year, about 5,000 patients die waiting.
"It sounds like the wrong thing to do to be buying kidneys," Matas says, "until you start realizing unless we can do something dramatic we're going to have a continuation of the situation where patients are dying on dialysis and their quality of life is worse."
Matas argues that people can already buy and sell human sperm, eggs, and blood. Why draw the line at kidneys and other organs?
And because a transplant saves so much money in long-term medical costs, Matas says the government and insurance companies could afford to pay each donor one fixed price.
"When all is said and done, the package could be worth $60,000 to $70,000 and still be cost-neutral to the health care system," says Matas, a surgeon at the University of Minnesota.
Obstacles to such a plan are huge. Not only are organ sales against the law -- in 1984, Congress banned financial incentives for organ donation -- virtually every major medical association opposes the idea, including Matas' own transplant society.
Critics argue the system would be abused, and the poor would be exploited. They point to Iran, Pakistan and the Philippines, where kidneys are sold on the black market.
Dr. Francis Delmonico, a transplant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, argues: "There are plenty of data now reported about the poor who have sold their kidney, and I can assure you that what has happened is that they remain destitute, they remain poor and they remain with one less kidney."
Matas, who frequently debates Delmonico on the subject at meetings of the Transplant Society, replies: "I think it's critical to differentiate unregulated systems which have failed in other countries … from the regulated system which I am advocating."
His proposal, published in several medical journals, emphasizes that the kidney sales should be strictly controlled by the government and insurance companies, with no middle men or brokers.
Those willing to sell a kidney would get a full physical and psychological evaluation and receive long-term follow up and medical care.
Matas is calling on Congress, and his colleagues, to allow a pilot project to see the effects of regulated kidney sales. He cites national surveys showing public support for the idea.
With a growing number of Americans dying on the waiting list, he says now is the time to try.
Yes, i wonder if they offer to "buy a kidney" from an individual for say 60K-70K the costs might be gobbled up in follow-up care or hidden costs too.
I would never make a live donation of one of my organs for someone I don't know. My grandfather ultimately needed both his kidneys, because he got a tumor in on kidney that was discovered on his last foreign vacation when he was 72. He ended up living almost another 11 years with his remaing kidney.
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Please provide a working link for this article: "People Can Sell Sperm; Why Not Kidneys?"
But what if there was no remaining kidney to live on for 11 years? Would that make a difference?
No
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