WIRED Staff

Kidneys for Sale in Pakistan, Too.

In Pakistan, chronic debt and bonded labor come together to make the country one of the world’s largest kidney bazaars. For poor farmers, sometimes the only option to crawl out of debt is to sell a kidney to a foreign organ tourist who offer to pay as much as $2,000 for quality innards. Selling kidneys […]

Kidney_transplant
In Pakistan, chronic debt and bonded labor come together to make the country one of the world's largest kidney bazaars. For poor farmers, sometimes the only option to crawl out of debt is to sell a kidney to a foreign organ tourist who offer to pay as much as $2,000 for quality innards. Selling kidneys remains illegal in much of the world, but the legal system has yet to catch up with international standards and it is still technically legal to buy over the counter grade-A farmer flesh with the government seal of approval.

At least 20 transplant clinics exist in Pakistan, and 10 percent ofthe patients are foreigners, many from the Middle East and "one or two"
from Europe, said Bakhsh Ali, a senior official at the Sindh Instituteof Urology and Transplantation.

The institute, a free transplant clinic run jointly by thegovernment and private organizations, has joined the call for banningthe sale of kidneys.

The government has drafted legislation to "regulate" kidneytransplants, monitor surgeries and "encourage family donors," saidHealth Ministry official Athar Saeed Dil, who has helped draft theproposed law.

*Via the *International Herald Tribune.