Legalise trade in donor organs, pleads surgeon

A leading transplant surgeon called today for the international trade in donor organs to be legalised and brought under government control.

Professor Maqsood Noorani, a former transplant surgeon at Barts and The London NHS Trust, said a worldwide shortage of organs was being exploited by unscrupulous operators who put donors and recipients at risk.

Writing in today's British Medical Journal, Professor Noorani says "transplant tourism", where patients travel abroad for operations which are illegal in Britain, has become a lucrative trade in countries such as Pakistan.

He says he has first-hand experience of trying to save the lives of British patients who suffered complications after travelling to Pakistan to buy a kidney from a live donor, which convinced him of the need for government action.

He argues that living donors in poor countries needed compensation for their organs and it should be the responsibility of the Government to provide it rather than leaving it to the market.

"Transplant tourism has become a lucrative business in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Private hospitals shamelessly advertise their services in newspapers and on the internet. Taxi drivers and touts know the addresses of all the transplant hospitals and brokers busily scavenge for desperate, poor people to meet the constantly increasing demand for kidneys by foreigners."

Pakistan should establish an authority over the private sector to encourage live donations, he said, and donors should be compensated with offers of accommodation or education for their children rather than cash.

Professor Noorani told the Independent: "Everyone benefits from transplant surgery except the donor. The donor is never appreciated. Live donors are heroes - they deserve a medal.

"One cannot pay compensation to donors in the UK - that would tarnish the whole process. But in Pakistan there is exploitation because people are poor. Money is the driving force behind transplant tourism."

A survey of 12 UK transplant units some years ago revealed 29 cases of patients going abroad to buy a kidney. Half of these organs failed.

An EU report this year warned that a rise in organ trafficking is being driven by a shortage of legally available organs and joint action is needed.

In Britain between 1 April 2006 and 31 March this year 3,086 organ transplants were carried out but more than 1,000 people die every year waiting for a transplant.