Call to legalise sale of human organs

[MORTARDUDE]

Call to legalise sale of human organs
By Patrick Sawer, Evening Standard
20 May 2003
The sale of human organs in Britain should be legalised, a leading transplant surgeon said today.

Professor Nadey Hakim, president of the Royal Society of Medicine's transplant committee, said the controversial trade in organs should be regulated.

He said a legal market would avoid the need for the growing number of cases of so-called "transplant tourism", where patients travel abroad for operations which are illegal in the UK.


Professor Hakim told BBC Radio 4's File On 4 programme: "As this trade is going on anyway, why not have a controlled trade where if someone wants to donate a kidney for a particular price, that would be acceptable. If it's done safely the donor will not suffer."

A serious organ shortage in Britain means more than 5,600 people are waiting for transplants. More and more people are travelling to countries such as India, where kidneys can be bought from donors.

Experts fear attempts to improve the supply of transplant organs are being held back by grey areas of the law. They say the Human Tissues Act of 1961, which enshrines most of the rules on organ transplants, is hopelessly outdated. A White Paper is due following a Department of Health consultation.

A number of ideas have been suggested for narrowing the gap between the number of available organs and patients who need them.

They include "paired kidney exchanges " between one couple and another, and "non-heartbeating donation", where an irreversible lack of heart rather than brain function is taken to mean that a patient is dead. Experts believe this could increase the supply of organs by 10 to 15 per cent.

A third idea is "non-directed living donation" which would allow individuals to donate a kidney, liver or lung to a transplant pool while still alive, in the same way as they might give blood.

Objectors to any legalised sale in organs fear the poor in this country could be driven to selling their body parts.

One of the biggest trade in organs is in China, where clinics have long been accused of offering organs from executed prisoners for sale to wealthy overseas patients.

[Lady Creffield]

I don't oppose ANY legal organ sale, but in all honesty I'm not quite sure where I stand on this. It's true that there are tragic shortages in organs available for transplant, but look at the ramifications of allowing sale. If Grandma has lived to a ripe old age but her family isn't doing so great fiscally, said familiy (if they were desperate, hostile or selfish enough) could knock her off and pawn the organs.

Having said that, I realize how unrealistic that scenario is---I don't think they could simply go and offer up a fresh, refrigerated heart for sale---people probably need to have the right paperwork, consent, etc...and I doubt that anyone would really do that. It's far fetched.

Heck, it's a slippery slope. I haven't the slightest idea where I stand. :cd:

Sorry for wasting forum space,
~Lady Creffield