Organ trade concern as Scots go to Pakistan for kidney transplants

Organ trade concern as Scots go to Pakistan for kidney transplants

Mon 21 May 2007
The Scotsman

AT LEAST 20 patients from Scotland have travelled to Pakistan for kidney transplants in the past seven years.

Concerns have been raised about a growing trade in organs in developing countries, with rich westerners jumping transplant queues by paying for treatment overseas.
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One of the Scottish patients identified by researchers in Dundee died after the operation in Pakistan.

However, survival rates a year after surgery for all patients were 90 per cent - much higher than survival rates found in studies carried out elsewhere in the UK.

Dr Drew Henderson, a renal consultant at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, said: "

Personally, I think it is probably morally wrong to take a transplant from someone else in another country unless it is part of a regulated system, ensuring proper follow-up care for the donor and set payments."

The sale of organs is unregulated in Pakistan, which has become a centre for transplant tourism.

• James Whale, the celebrity DJ and kidney disease sufferer, last night claimed medical chiefs who refuse to allow a new treatment will be "playing God" with people's lives.

He has warned the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) as it decides whether to approve Sutent, a new drug that combats kidney cancer.

Bosses are to make another ruling after rejecting the drug as "uneconomic" last year.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=785492007