| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| UK: Call to legalise sale of human organs |
| 2003-05-20 |
| Nothing to do with AKs in Peshawar, but quite relevant, I think, to individual and privacy rights. 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 They say the Human Tissues Act of 1961, which enshrines most of the rules on organ transplants, is hopelessly outdated.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. Curious what their metrics are here--are they looking at "donors" individually, or counting organs (both lungs, both kidneys, heart, etc.) from each prospective donor. And what are the chances they're killing a patient who could recover from the illness/injury so they can harvest the organs? If the patient had not consented previously to being an organ donor but otherwise fit the criteria, would he be allowed to stay on life support until there is no brain function? 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. Great for winos and college students! 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. I'm surprised Cuba isn't doing the same thing. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #3 Hurrah for the enlightened British, If this bozo gets what he wants the next step should be the death penalty for parking violations with the executed person's body going straight to the go'mint organ banks to be transplanted into the wealthy and powerful. This was once the topic of SF stories and may now take the first small step of becoming a reality. watch were you park!!!!! |
| Posted by: The Dodo 2003-05-21 01:13:08 |
| #2 The free market is needed, Ptah. Derived demand and all that. The demand is there, the market mechanism must create its own supply. |
| Posted by: Brian 2003-05-21 01:11:47 |
| #1 I'm so terribly scared about this. I can't think of any thing that's portable and fetches a high price that is immune to theft, and whose system of controls, if any, are immune from fraud, graft, and bribery. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-05-20 20:39:43 |