Human organ trafficking threatens donation schemes

By Tom Heneghan

ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - Illegal trafficking of human organs from poor to rich countries threatens to undermine donation programs in industrialized states and worsen a growing shortage, transplant experts said on Monday.

Exploiting poor donors, especially for kidneys, is creating a kind of "medical apartheid" that risks turning public opinion against transplantation schemes and could threaten rich states' legal donation programs, experts said.

"Organ trafficking and its consequences are of grave concern for transplantation and public trust in medical establishments," University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Debra Budiani told a conference aimed at a common European policy on transplants.

Andre Kottnerus, chairman of the Netherlands Health Council, said health officials had to speak out more publicly against organ trafficking, which the World Health Organization (WHO) says accounts for up to 10 percent of transplants worldwide.

"As a scientific community, we have to be accountable to society not only for the successes but also for the failures and threats," he said.

Transplantation is a growing problem in rich states because waiting lists are growing far faster than the supply of organs.

Kidneys are in dramatically short supply, prompting a black market where the poor receive small sums for donating kidneys sold to rich recipients for many thousands of dollars.

There are about 95,000 people waiting for kidney transplants in the United States and about 65,000 in Europe, said Michael Bos of the Netherlands Health Council. Annual transplant rates run about 25,000 in the United States and 16,000 in Europe.