Pay organ donors, expert suggests

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People should be paid for living organ donations, a US surgeon has said in an article in the British Medical Journal.

A regulated system for paying donors for organs such as kidneys would help solve the "desperate" need for organs, Professor Amy Friedman writes.

Prof Friedman, from Yale University School of Medicine, believes the system would prevent exploitation.

But British experts warned such a scheme would still exploit the most vulnerable members of society.

Short supply

Donors in the UK are paid by the NHS for travel expenses and loss of earnings associated with the operation, but cannot be paid for the organ.

Prof Friedman, who has worked as a transplant surgeon for 15 years, said the severe shortage of organs had generated desperation among patients waiting for a transplant.

Bringing these activities out of the closet by introducing governmental supervision and funding will provide equity for the poor, who will get equal access to such transplants Professor Amy Friedman

And despite laws prohibiting payments for organs, wealthy patients could travel abroad to buy organs such as kidneys for transplant.

Setting up a regulated system of compensation for living donors is not against current medical practice, as other body parts such as eggs, semen and hair, are already on sale in the US and patients are also paid for participating in medical research, she argues.

"Bringing these activities out of the closet by introducing governmental supervision and funding will provide equity for the poor, who will get equal access to such transplant," she said.

She said any laws would have to be policed, probably by the government, with a balanced oversight board comprised of medical and transplant professionals, as well as representatives of patients, donors and social workers.

Black market

Professor Stephen Wigmore, chairman of the British Transplantation Society Ethics Committee, said the society would welcome any ethically acceptable innovation which would increase the availability of organs for transplantation.

But he added: "The problem still remains that nobody is going to sell a kidney unless they need the money. Even if you give a kidney to a poor person it's still going to be a vulnerable person who donated it.

"There have been some studies about what happens to people in the third world and what happened was they cleared their debts but within a few years they were in debt again but without a kidney.

"Also people don't really know what happens to living kidney donors in the long term - do they have normal mortality or do they develop kidney failure at 60 and need a transplant themselves?"