Philippine Government Bans Organ Transplants For Foreigners

Featured Article
Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 01 May 2008 - 8:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

In a bid to reduce the growing black market in kidneys for transplant, particularly from poor Filipino donors, the authorities in Manila have permanently banned organ transplants for foreigners in the country. A temporary ban was already in place but has now been replaced by the permanent ban.

The law in the Philippines states that no more than 10 per cent of transplants in the country are to be carried out on foreigners.

The country has seen a surge in foreigners coming to have organ transplants, because they are so cheap. Hundreds of them travel to the Philippines every year, mostly from Japan, Europe and the Middle East said officials.

In 2007 about 50 per cent of transplant operations in the country involved foreign recipients said the authorities.

The illegal trade in organs, mostly kidneys, is often disguised as donations and has been thriving for years in the Philippines. The media has been reporting on it for some time.

Many of the organs come from poor Filipinos who are sometimes duped by middlemen into selling their organs on the black market for meagre sums.

TV and media reports often show footage of men in Manila slums with scars on the side of their body where a kidney has been removed. They can get about 200,000 pesos, abot 760 US dollars for "donating" a kidney to a black market buyer.

Many poor "donors" don't get the right treatment after their kidney has been removed and are therefore more likely to develop post operative health problems such as urinary tract infections and high blood pressure, said the health authorities.

The ban was announced by Health Minister Francisco Duque at a news conference in Manila on Tuesday 29th April. According a BBC report, Duque said:

"The Philippine government faces the ethical and moral imperative to protect Filipinos, particularly the poor, from black market sale of internal organs."

The ban comes in the wake of similar bans in China and Pakistan; the Philippine authorities feared this might increase the black market pressure in the Philippines.

The Associated Press reported Duque saying that:

"The sale of one's body parts is condemnable and ethically improper. We have to stop it."

Certain groups will be exempt from the ban, such as foreigners who can provide a donor who is a blood relative, he said.

Duque told the press the president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, endorsed the ban and it comes into effect in about three weeks.

The ban does not affect Filipino donor-recipient arrangements, but those will also come under tighter regulation said the authorities.

The BBC's correspondent said that criminal gangs trawl the slums of Manila in search of easy prey, and the police have raided apartments where surgical operations were being conducted to remove kidneys under conditions of poor hygiene. There have been stories in the local media of people dying in such circumstances.

The Associated Press reported that two weeks ago the police raided a house near Manila where nine men were being held by a gang that had lured them there with the promise of jobs but had then turned round and forced them to agree to "donate" their kidneys.

The AP report said the gangs were still looking for customers when the captives were found, two of whom had already lost their kidneys, a police spokesman told the agency.

Sources:BBC News, Associated Press.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today