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http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20100919-237924.html
Sun, Sep 19, 2010
The Star/Asia News Network
Patient willing to pay $21,500 for a kidney
By Rashvinjeet S Bedi
KUALA LUMPUR - DESPERATE to have a transplant, a kidney patient has offered to buy a kidney for RM50,000 (S$21,475).
A handwritten advertisement, put up at the busy Pudu area here (above, inset), even provided a contact number for interested sellers to reach the buyer.
When contacted by Sunday Star, a man who picked up the phone said his cousin needed a kidney transplant and they were looking for a Chinese donor.
"The doctors are very strict about this kind of thing.
"If you are Chinese, you can pretend to be his relative. There is no chance at all (for someone other than a Chinese to donate the kidney)," he said.
Malaysian Society of Transplantation president Datuk Dr Harjit Singh condemned the act of buying or selling organs.
"It is also wrong to say that an organ is only meant for a particular race or religion. Such motives are not altruistic and should be discouraged," he said.
He pointed out that the World Health Organisation Guiding Principle 5 explicitly stated that sale and purchase of organs or tissues from living or deceased persons should be banned.
There are an estimated 21,000 patients undergoing dialysis treatment in the country.
Of this number, 11,000 are waiting for a kidney transplant.
In the past, many Malaysians went overseas, especially to China and India, for organ transplants (read more).
National Transplant Resource Centre chief co-ordinator Datin Dr Lela Yasmin Mansor said there were still no laws to prohibit the selling or buying of an organ, although it was frowned upon.
"It is unethical," she stressed.
She said that both government and private hospitals would not go ahead with organ transplants if they knew that a living donor was not related to the patient.
She, however, did not discount the possibility of rogue surgeons performing such transplants.
Dr Lela added that the Health Ministry was in the midst of drafting regulations to ban the sale or purchase of organs.
Sun, Sep 19, 2010
The Star/Asia News Network
Patient willing to pay $21,500 for a kidney
By Rashvinjeet S Bedi
KUALA LUMPUR - DESPERATE to have a transplant, a kidney patient has offered to buy a kidney for RM50,000 (S$21,475).
A handwritten advertisement, put up at the busy Pudu area here (above, inset), even provided a contact number for interested sellers to reach the buyer.
When contacted by Sunday Star, a man who picked up the phone said his cousin needed a kidney transplant and they were looking for a Chinese donor.
"The doctors are very strict about this kind of thing.
"If you are Chinese, you can pretend to be his relative. There is no chance at all (for someone other than a Chinese to donate the kidney)," he said.
Malaysian Society of Transplantation president Datuk Dr Harjit Singh condemned the act of buying or selling organs.
"It is also wrong to say that an organ is only meant for a particular race or religion. Such motives are not altruistic and should be discouraged," he said.
He pointed out that the World Health Organisation Guiding Principle 5 explicitly stated that sale and purchase of organs or tissues from living or deceased persons should be banned.
There are an estimated 21,000 patients undergoing dialysis treatment in the country.
Of this number, 11,000 are waiting for a kidney transplant.
In the past, many Malaysians went overseas, especially to China and India, for organ transplants (read more).
National Transplant Resource Centre chief co-ordinator Datin Dr Lela Yasmin Mansor said there were still no laws to prohibit the selling or buying of an organ, although it was frowned upon.
"It is unethical," she stressed.
She said that both government and private hospitals would not go ahead with organ transplants if they knew that a living donor was not related to the patient.
She, however, did not discount the possibility of rogue surgeons performing such transplants.
Dr Lela added that the Health Ministry was in the midst of drafting regulations to ban the sale or purchase of organs.
