Philippine bishops urge halt to organ trafficking
MANILA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Philippine Catholic bishops urged the government on Monday to impose stricter regulations on organ donation, worried over abuses that have spawned a lucrative illegal trade of kidneys.
The Philippines has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as among countries promoting "transplant tourism" to attract foreigners looking for organ transfers.
"Human organ sale or trade, by its very nature is morally unacceptable," Angel Lagdameo, archbishop of Jaro in the central Philippines and head of the 120-member Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said in a statement.
"They are human beings and cannot be treated as commodities. We encourage voluntary organ donation from cadavers and also from living donors."
The bishops urged the government to impose stricter laws to halt the commercialisation or selling of organs and prioritising local patients over foreigners.
The Department of Health said the cost of a kidney in the country was estimated at 150,000 pesos ($3,600), with the donor getting only a third of the amount while two-thirds went to middlemen.
Several Web sites offer all-inclusive "transplant packages", ranging from $70,000 to $160,000, the WHO said in a study last year.
The same WHO study showed increases in the number of foreign recipients in Pakistan and in the Philippines, where 110 out of 468 kidney transplants in 2003 were to patients from abroad.
Quoting from a statement issued by the late Pope John Paul II, the bishops said organ donation should not be a paid practice since "it is a decision to offer a part of one's own body for the health and well-being of another person". (Reporting by Manny Mogato, editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson)
