Originally published February 26 2006
Controversy surrounds doctors' proposal for selling human organs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Michael Wilks, chairman of the British Medical Association's ethics committee, refuses to accept any proposal that would legalize the sale of human organs.
They said bids to increase the donor pool were failing, and a black market in organ sales was booming.
Writing in Kidney International the pair said, while it remained a taboo, legalisation should be considered.
But experts in the UK - where selling organs is illegal - said such a move was unnecessary and would exploit the poorest sections of society.
About 400 people a year die in the UK because they are left waiting for a donor, despite the fact that 13m people are signed up to the register.
UK Transplant, the NHS body responsible for the register, said in many cases organs were prevented from being donated because the families were unaware of the donor's intentions.
A spokesman said efforts were being made in the UK to encourage people to join the register and talk about it with their families.
And while refusing to take a position on selling organs, he said: "It is a tragedy that the critical shortage of organs donated for transplant means this question arises at all."
Eli Friedman, a kidney specialist, at the State University of New York, and Amy Friedman, a transplant specialist, of Yale University, said the case for legalising kidney purchases hinged on the fact that individuals were entitled to control their own body parts.
They said: "Strategies to expand the donor pool - public relations campaigns - have been mainly unsuccessful.
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