Kiwis buy bootleg kidney transplants

[okarol]

Kiwis buy bootleg kidney transplants
By Catherine Masters
4:00 AM Thursday Apr 8, 2010

New Zealanders desperate for kidney transplants are using the internet to buy organs from Third World countries.

A senior Auckland doctor said yesterday that he had dealt with two cases in which New Zealanders had bought kidneys and had the transplant operations in the Third World - and he knew there were others.

"They are very rare, but it happens," said Associate Professor Johan Rosman, chief medical officer and renal physician for Waitemata District Health.

"They come back to us and we say, 'Where have you been? You've been away for six months?' [They say] 'Yeah, I've bought me an organ'.

"I've seen two but there are many more, and I know that in the Netherlands and in the US it's very common practice.

One of the NZ patients had a badly done transplant, and the other had a successful operation.

"It's always the same thing - they say, 'We're going to buy a kidney', and all of a sudden they're gone, they don't come for dialysis any more. Then they show up and they have the kidney."

Professor Rosman, a speaker at a conference on NZ's low organ-donor rate held in Wellington yesterday, said he did not approve of the practice and would never recommend it, but there was no point in ignoring it.

He proposed allowing people to buy organs, but setting up a safe hospital in a Third World country so they could receive healthy organs and be well cared for.

Professor Rosman said it was easy to find kidneys for sale through the internet.

"The problem is, we don't know where it happens - it's usually small hospitals in the bush and people get bad kidneys, they may get HIV ... We've seen it in the past.

"We say it's unethical to do that. It's unethical to buy organs from poor people

"But if you could save your family by selling an organ and you could do that in a proper hospital and you know you would be seen every half-year after your surgery and have proper controls and be safe and not be fobbed off with $100 [instead of the promised $10,000 payment] ...

"I think in the end that's a better system, otherwise we're just fooling ourselves."

The sale of kidneys happens in countries such as China, Pakistan and India and, more recently, poor African nations.

THE PRICE
* In New Zealand a kidney transplant costs taxpayers about $80,000 in the first year, and $10,000 to $15,000 in each subsequent year, mainly for anti-rejection drugs.
* In the Third World, patients pay more than US$100,000 ($141,800) for a kidney transplant taken from a live donor.
By Catherine Masters

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10636989

[jennyc]

Yeh, there was an article here about a woman who went to pakistan or somewhere similar and bought a kidney off some poor guy and then she ended up with a septic fungal infection and ended up in Lebanon (?), lost the kidney and was stuck in hospital for some ungodly lenght of time. The article actually wanted us to feel sorry for her. Thing is for normal people over here the waiting is 5-6 years. Can't feel sorry for her when the hospital is more than willing to provide you with the stats for failure vs success rates for kidney tourists (and they are pretty bad).

I honeslty think the Kidney trade is very immoral and i know everyone is different but to pressure some poor person into selling a kidney becuase they are desperate is not humane. I think once we head down that path we have lost a little of what makes us human (in putting your life above another less fortunate person esp when you are in a country that has good health care and you have a good chance of living and they are from a 3rd world country where they have little or no chance of good health care if anything goes wrong).

[Zach]

"I've seen two but there are many more, and I know that in the Netherlands and in the US it's very common practice.

"... in the US it's very common practice?"

Give me a break!

[okarol]

"I've seen two but there are many more, and I know that in the Netherlands and in the US it's very common practice.

"... in the US it's very common practice?"

Give me a break!

Right! In the last 7 years since I started learning about transplants, I have only heard of 2 (where I actually spoke with the person.) I don't think there are very many people who go that route from the US.

[monrein]

I personally know two people here in Canada who did...one in China and one in India.  I've heard of a few others from dialysis nurses and I might be mistaken on this but I had the impression that one member here went to the Philippines for one.

Certainly doesn't sound like a stampede though.