Pakistan — A “Kidney Bazaar”

The sale of one of a person’s own kidneys for a live-donor transplant is on the increase especially in Pakistan where the media refers to the country as a “kidney bazaar.”  See Kidney bazaar: Poverty compels Asian organ sellers, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Nov. 13, 2006, at A7.

The report explains:

A kidney nets the donor $2,500, sometimes less than half that amount, while recipients – some 2,000 a year – pay $6,000 to $12,000, compared with $70,000 in neighboring China.

Critics blame an economic system that enmeshes farmers in chronic debt, forcing them to sell their kidneys, and say the trade should be banned. The government says it is taking action.

In the United States, donating kidneys for money is banned. But the Belgium-based International Society of Nephrology has suggested expanding the pool of kidney donors by legalizing payment of about $40,000 to donors.