UK doctor wants NHS to buy kidneys

[KICKSTART]

Did anyone watch C4 last night ? (sorry UK only) Briefly a top London transplant doctor wants people to be paid by the NHS to donate their kidneys due to the shortage for transplant over here. His arguement is that people are going abroad to buy kidneys from other poorer countries and putting themselves at risk , due to poor hygene and operating skills. Many people are so desperate to get a kidney that they will put themselves at risk of doing this. He said the system would be well regulated and considereing it costs about £20-30,000 to treat a patient (per year) a price of about £15,000 for a kidney would seem reasonable and save the NHS millions. He said they have all the staff required to do the transplants and could perform up to 6 a day, but because of lack of donors only 2 or 3 a day were being done. Many argued that poor people would come forward to sell their kidneys and would therefore be taken advantage of. What are your views i wonder ?





EDITED: Thread moved to proper section: " Transplant Stories" - Sluff, Moderator

[del]

Major ethical question.  What about the legal aspect.  Would people then be pressured to sell kidneys.  Maybe they should start an ad campaign to encourage people to sign donor cards.  I don't think I agree with buying or selling body parts.

[angieskidney]

Many argued that poor people would come forward to sell their kidneys and would therefore be taken advantage of. What are your views i wonder ?

That is one thing I worried about. Another would be that the rich would all get kidneys while the poor who couldn't afford it would still wait. But then I was corrected in my forum's ethics section because if the rich were all buying kidneys then there would be less people on the waiting list and then the poor waiting on the list would benefit by getting transplanted sooner than currently. And as Mitch from the Philippines used to say, the poor who sell a kidney would be better off because they need the money.
But I am against the selling of organs myself. But there has been talk of instead of people paying out of pocket that instead the government would pay people to do live altruistic donation and that would help out. Still that might make taxes go up but the cost saved by less people on dialysis would probably even it out. I don't know the US system or the UK system enough to know.

[kitkatz]

I think we better think real carefully before we start to sell kidneys in the United States.  I think it would turn into a free-for-all fight over here.









EDITED: Removed double post at kitkatzs request - Sluff, Moderator

[Bajanne]

But in the UK, it would not be the same as the US, since it is the National Health Scheme(System?).  It is nothing to do with rich or poor, so the rich should not have an advantage there.  Those from the UK, correct me if I am wrong.  I can see poor people being influenced to try to get some money by selling a kidney, but I can't see rich people benefiting more than anyone else.