Human Kidney, Liver, Heart for Sale on Global Market

The first successful kidney transplant was in 1954. The first successful liver and heart transplant was in 1967. The United States banned the sale of human organs in 1984. India followed suit in 1994; with China coming on board with the ban in 1995.

It is estimated 170,000 patients in the United States and Europe are on waiting lists for vital organs to sustain their life.

Those facing death and their families have resorted to desperate measures to seek help. They have rented billboards advertising their loved ones plight. The afflicted register on websites such as MatchingDonors.com which charge a fee of $595 for unlimited access or $295 for a month subscription.

Washington Post reported Lois Green,68,of Salem, Virginia opened an account with Matching Donors hoping to find a kidney donor match. She eventually closed her membership due to only receiving solicitation to purchase a kidney. When contacted Matching Donors admitted site abuse; they policed and weeded out undesirables "by posting prominent warnings that selling organs is illegal."

Survivors in India, after the devastating tsunami of 2004, sold their kidneys having lost any other means to keep body and soul together. The Transplant Authorization Committee was formed; who took care of all the formalities except where the refugees had to sign on the dotted line. The Police Superintendent investigating complaints of "brokers" keeping a majority of the payments claimed, "out of several thousand dollars taken as commission, most go to bribes, with brokers only collecting about $300 per transaction."

Women at the tsunami refugee camp who bear physical scars of their operation must worry about paying for after care which isn't included in the quoted price. The average pay is about $900; although the original amount promised is near $3,300 in the contract. [ American lawyers would have a field day.]

BBC reporter Rupert Winfield-Hayes approached a hospital in China under the pretense of requesting a liver for his dying father. He was reportedly told by hospital staff, a liver could be provided in 3 weeks, at a cost of 50,000 pounds [$94,400] in 2006.

Wall Street Journal reporting in 2007: Avraham Abelson, 65, a diamond dealer from Israel was No. 127 on the list for a heart transplant. Informed by the doctors he didn't have much time left, he travelled to China and paid $150,000 for the heart of a 21-year-old Chinese. With his renewed vigor, he forced his insurance company to reimburse the cost, after they had first refused.

The Chinese are uncomfortable with the idea of organ donation from the deceased. They do not have a national donor organization, donor cards, registration or waiting lists. Almost 2 million Chinese people are in need of transplants. Who fills the supply to meet the demand? China executes more prisoners than any other country in the world. Prisoners "volunteer" their organs as a 'present to society' to save face for their crimes.

The Epoch Times reported between 1999 and 2004, at least a thousand Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death in China. 52% of the victims were female; some found with missing internal organs. The World Organization published a report July 25, 2007 investigating the crimes of organ harvesting performed on live Falun Gong members. The entire report is available on the website: http://www.zhuichaquoji.org/en/

American lawmakers are considering legislation that would reward prisoners in exchange for organs or bone marrow with reduced jail time. A South Carolina State panel sponsored by Democratic Senator Ralph Anderson, endorses creating a bill for an organ-and-tissue donation program for inmates if found federally legal.

Reformers believe legalizing organ sales is the solution to prevent deaths of those awaiting transplant and those "good Samaritans" on the opposite table. Dr. Arthur Matas, of University of Minnesota, supports legalization where all the usual government regulations would be in place, fixing prices and collecting taxes. The value of a kidney is approximately $90,000 according to Dr. Matas. [Price check called by the cashier as she scans the human kidney] The book- Kidney For Sale: Human Organs, Transplantation and the Mark, by Mark Cherry agrees that to save lives the answer is paid compensation for 'altruism.'