People should be allowed to sell their kidneys?

People should be allowed to sell their kidneys? « Voice of Freedom’s Weblog

Novel way of attacking the problem of organ donations. I can see poor people falling for this, “hey whats one kidney, I need $50,000 dollars now!” Once again, the poor of the world will be the true victims. What price will other organs bring? Got an extra eye ya’ want to sell? How about that second lung, you might not need that too much, just don’t do too much labor and you should be able to breath fine with just one.

As an aside, maybe the medical profession should be looking into why 40 Aussies a day are dying of “kidney failure” rather than applying a fix at the expense of people motivated by the gain of $50,000 per organ.

By medical reporter Sophie Scott

Posted Mon May 5, 2008 6:43pm AEST

A leading medical specialist says young healthy people should be allowed to sell their kidneys to help reduce the transplant waiting list.

More than 40 Australians die from kidney failure every day, and many are waiting for a new organ.

It is a radical idea but some health experts say the situation with organ donation is so desperate it is warranted.

Canberra doctor Gavin Carney believes healthy young people should be allowed to sell one of their kidneys for up to $50,000.

“Patients need a kidney and the Government will recruit those kidneys in an ethical and proper good fashion, pay and compensate young Australians to donate their kidneys to other Australians,” he said.

Despite countless public awareness campaigns Australia still has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the world.

“If one compensated healthy Australians to donate their kidneys then you would have a ready pool of kidneys for kidney patients, you would get the best possible matches, it’s a win-win situation for everyone concerned,” he said.

One person dies every week because they can not get a kidney transplant.

Patients like Matthew Fitzsimmons can wait four years for an an organ to become available.

Despite that, he is opposed to people selling their organs, saying such a system is open to abuse.