Why a Kidney (Street Value: $3,000) Sells for $85,000

[okarol]

Why a Kidney (Street Value: $3,000) Sells for $85,000

Scott Carney
05.08.07 | 2:00 AM

CHENNAI, India -- Aadil Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan is one of the top medical facilities in the region, rated on par with any hospital in the West, according to the International Organization for Standardization.

Kidney-transplant candidates stuck on a 10-year waiting list in the United States might happily pay a consultant $35,000 or more to book an operation here. Or, they could arrange it themselves for less than half that price.

These days, Aadil openly advertises two packages for transplant patients at steep discounts to the brokered rate: $14,000 for the first transplant, $16,000 for people who need a second organ after the first has failed.

"You do not have to worry about the donor. We shall provide a live donor arranged through a humanitarian organization, which has hundreds," said Abdul Waheed Sheikh, CEO of Aadil Hospital in an e-mail interview with Wired News.

Scarcity has long been a key driver of the global kidney market, but in regions like India, Brazil, Pakistan and China, sellers are dealing with signs of a surplus. Operations that once set back patients tens of thousands of dollars on the black market can now be had for a fraction of the cost in some places.

The price of a kidney transplant at one of the best hospitals in the Philippines, where organ sales are legal, was recently just $6,316, according to a 2005 report by the Philippine Information Agency. That compares to prices as high as $85,000 charged by professional organ hunters who place Western patients with donors from the slums of Manila.

Yet, legalization has seemingly not worked to alleviate the supply shortage for the patient. Legal confusion, fear and an information gap have created a classic arbitrage scenario for connected vendors, and the vast profits available to the middlemen have entrenched market inequities and dented reform efforts, experts say.

Falling prices have hit the lowest end of the chain hardest. In South Asia, sellers work through organ brokers who on average pay only a few thousand dollars for a healthy kidney, assuming they pay at all. And that's despite booming demand. The World Health Organization in 2002 pegged the global number of people suffering from diabetes at 171 million. By 2030 the number will climb to more than 366 million.

"Each country and each region therein has completely different situations than the next one," explained a Los Angeles-based organ finder doing business online at the website liver4you.org, who asked to be identified only as Mitch. "Since most overseas transplants are doctor-controlled, like (from) private medical practice in the United States, there is a wide range in prices ... The donors are in such huge supply where it's legal, like the Philippines, so they have to accept the average of $3,000 (for selling their kidneys)."

Savings are rarely passed on to the buyer. Once the organs move from the streets into the medical supply chain, their value inflates quickly. Mitch said he typically charges between $35,000 and $85,000 for kidney transplants. Depending on where those operations take place, Mitch could clear $25,000 or more per transaction.

"When Iran legalized live donations, they bought the argument that the short supply of kidneys was really only a marketing problem," said Nancy Scheper-Hughes whose nonprofit Organs Watch monitors organ trade around the world. "But by making the government responsible for managing the black-market kidney trade, the so-called transplant coordinators were turned into brokers and kidney hunters -- or more accurately into thugs who troll the streets and homeless shelters for people to donate on the cheap."

In Chennai, K. Karppiah is widely considered one of the most active players in the kidney trade, having been fingered by dozens of organ donors from the slums north of the city. He declined requests to be interviewed for this story.

When a reporter visited his house, a man outside was laying asphalt. "Everyone knows Karppiah," he said. "On this street, all the houses are his."

- - -

Scott Carney is an investigative journalist based in Chennai, India.
http://www.wired.com/services/feedback/letterstoeditor Email

URL http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2007/05/india_transplants_prices


PHOTO: The overcrowded municipal slums in Aynavaram, India, on the north side of Chennai form one of the nicer kidneyvakkams in the city.

[jbeany]

Mitch, huh?   

[whitehorse]

Mitch posted his reply to the web page http://blog.wired.com/articlecomment/2007/05/why_a_kidney_st.html
I copied it below but if we are going to see a back and forth debate the Admins-Sluff, Goofynina needs to invite him. 

"The article is mostly fiction. The author uses made up phrases like "kidney hunter" which is not in Websters dictionary nor it's Thesaurus. When Iran legalized paid donors, it can not be call "black market" according to www.wikipedia.com The author contradicts himself when saying that Philippine Doctors control the donors but there is a "kidney hunter" in L.A. through www.liver4you.org This web site says nothing of the kind. The author states that he can not get factual public information in India. So why does he write this article before he gets the facts ? "

Posted by: Mitch Michaelson | May 10, 2007 5:49:57 AM

"The title "Why a kidney (street value $3000) Sells for $85,000. is very misleading. It is NOT true. The donor getting compensated with $ 3000. while the total Transplant Surgery for two people is what could cost $85,000. This includes seven Surgeons, three other Medical Specialists, the Hospital and staff, laboratories, Medications, donors expenses and the Life time Medical Health Insurance for the donor.."


Posted by: Mitch Michaelson | May 10, 2007 6:17:26 AM 

[st789]

WTF.....I think there is more to the story.

[Sluff]

Falling prices have hit the lowest end of the chain hardest. In South Asia, sellers work through organ brokers who on average pay only a few thousand dollars for a healthy kidney, assuming they pay at all. And that's despite booming demand. The World Health Organization in 2002
Savings are rarely passed on to the buyer. Once the organs move from the streets into the medical supply chain, their value inflates quickly. Mitch said he typically charges between $35,000 and $85,000 for kidney transplants. Depending on where those operations take place, Mitch could clear $25,000 or more per transaction.

[/b]


Didn't Mitch claim he didn't make money on the transaction and that he was just trying to provide a way to help others recieve a transplant?

[whitehorse]

The web site www.liver4you.org  does not claim to be a not profit group. Sluff I could not find an answer to your question about what Mitch said.
The article about kidney transplant in India, Iran and the Philippines did not make things clear to me. The author Scott Carney,
could not be found in any well know publications or anyplace for that matter.

[HellCat]

So exactly where would you go if you were interested in getting a kidney in a foreign country instead of waiting here in the US. Not that I actually would do it but just curious.

[whitehorse]

Canada is a good place. I notice that you were almost apologizing to ask about foreign transplants saying " Not that I actually would do it ". I can understand you not wanting to take heat for just asking a question, which is what would happen.
   If we needed a cardiologist but had to wait 3-5 years to get to be treated, we would look elsewhere, even far away foreign places. But needing a transplant and having to wait a long time would not appear to be a reason enough to get a foreign transplant. It would certainly draw intense criticism here on ihatedialysis.
   Most of us don't think of Canada as a foreign place but crossing the ocean could make us fall off the edge.