• Main
• Forums
• Recent
• File Portal
• HSC Mail
• Statistics
• About

NEWS: [17-11-2009] - 96% of kidney recipients pay the donor: Survey

Submitted by Dreamcatcher on Wed, 18/11/2009 - 3:18pm.

KUWAIT: A recent survey conducted among kidney recipients in Kuwait identified that some 96 percent of the polled had paid the organ donor - an act that translates into bypassing of the legal framework. Under Kuwait's 1987 Organ Transplant Law, the selling and buying of human organs is illegal; the law allows the donation of organs during life or after death for free. According to Dr Mustafa Al-Mousawi, head of Kuwait's Hamad Al-Essa Organ Transplant Center, the survey conducted by his organization identi
fied that two out of a sample of 50 kidney recipients admitted to having paid the donor.

Al-Mousawi was speaking to a host of attendees at a seminar organized by Kuwait Transplant Society on Sunday evening. The seminar addressed the battle to defeat illegal practices of organ trading, the global deficit of organ donors, the unethical aspect of selling organs and the tourism transplantation.

Organ sale is a global problem that has a huge impact on everyone, says Francis Delmonico, surgery professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of Medical Affairs, International Transplant Society. Addressing the seminar, Delmonico, who is also an advisor to the World Health Organization, explained that every country needs to handle the demand for organs within the country itself.

Global malpractice

Delmonico quoted statistics that some 1,000 transplants are performed per year whereas as many as one million people are in need of organs. The demand for organ donors and the dearth of sufficient supply have in the past years triggered a lucrative global trade based on organ selling, transplant tourism and even organ trafficking. The global black market for organs is spurred by a growing demand of patients who are ready to pay sometimes as much as $200,000 per kidney. It is about money and exploitation, D
elmonico says.

Studies claim that every fifth kidney transplant in the world is said to be the result of human organ trafficking. The World Health Organization estimates a steep growth in organ trafficking with brokers profiteering as much as the lump sum of $100,000 to $200,000 per transplant. Of these, the donor oftentimes receives a paltry fraction of the sum that could be sometimes as low as $1,000. Speaking about the transplant tourism trend globally, Al-Mousawi observes that the donor often does not receive the mon
ey, which are collected by the middlemen and the doctor.

Quoting prices from the polled recipients in Kuwait, Al-Mousawi said that the kidney donor here receives an average of KD 6,000. The poor have been used as spare parts for the rich, he said.

Organ trafficking

Tough economic circumstances seem to perpetuate the trend of black market organ sale. The colossal reality of organ trafficking thrives in places which feature a gargantuan jobless pond. Today, the organ trafficking sickness has erupted in places such as China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Pakistan and the Philippines, according to the WHO. In Pakistan, Egypt and the Philippines organ trafficking has been a problem, says Delmonico.

China, experts say, represents the doom and gloom story of cumulative organ trafficking gone awry. In Delmonico's words, prisoners are executed and their organs shipped abroad. In 2007 alone, almost 5,000 prisoners were executed in China.

The scale of Internet omnipresence has taken organ industry to new heights. Websites are offering kidneys on message boards, forums and classified sections for organ sales. Kidney-wanted advertisements are not confined to the Internet alone as they are rampantly widespread in the local press. If you open the newspapers you will see sometimes 10 ads on daily basis, Al-Mousawi stressed.

In a local newspaper, a prospective kidney-seeker who put his name as Abu Mohammed in an advertisement for a kidney, says he speaks on behalf of a relative who needs the organ transplant 'urgently.' He says he will resort to paying a certain amount should "worse comes to worst". He however, admits that a few prospective donors called offering help "in exchange for money." Abu Mohammed, who explains that the organ-seeker is an expat, says that a female caller from the low-wage earner bracket was interested
to donate her kidney. "Judging by the questions she was asking I assumed that she wanted to sell her kidney," he said over the telephone requesting anonymity.

Solutions

There is no room for complacency when it comes to organ trafficking, seminar participants agreed in sync. Institutionalizing a reward for donors, encouraging deceased donations and prohibiting unrelated organ transplants are some of the ways to solve the metastasizing problem of organ commercialization.
Statistics quoted by Al-Mousawi points out that in 2009 alone, there were some 75 transplants of kidney in Kuwait, of them only four were of a related donor. In addition, there have been just four usable deceased donor transplants in 2009.

Banning the living unrelated organ transplants and applying better scrutiny over the non-related donations could be a game-changer and could save lives not at the expense of vulnerable donors. Following a meeting with Kuwait's Minister of Health, Dr Hilal Al-Sayer earlier on Sunday, Delmonico announced that the minister is committed to prohibiting unrelated donations - a move that allegedly in 2008 forced lawmakers to reconsider the eight-month closure of a committee for unrelated donors.

Hussain Hayati, a specialist transplant surgeon with Hamad Al-Essa Organ Transplant Center, provided a different take on the matter. He premised on the idea that the organ deficiency in the country could be solved by donors who die in road accidents, stating that Kuwait roads claim as many as 300 to 400 victims a year or "one person a day.

Organ donation gives a patient a second life. For Saleh Yaseen, Professor of Engineering at KU and a kidney recipient, the donation of his sister's kidney some 10 years ago gave him the opportunity to live "a full life.