The Pakistan Kidney Bazaar

In Pakistan, impoverished farmers who remain heavily in debt largely thanks to an economic system that enmeshes them in massive debt have taken to selling their kidneys to outside markets, leading Pakistan's media to dub the country a "kidney bazaar."

CNN's article on the problem is fascinating: one one hand, Pakistan's kidney market doesn't appear to help farmers very much: paid price for kidneys remains low and, even worse, many people who sell their kidneys to help pay off their debts find they are no longer robust enough to work their farms, which results in them amassing even more debt.

"I pant. I cannot run. I cannot pick up heavy things," said Allah Yar, a 50-year-old farmer who has suffered poor health for seven years since selling a kidney. The father of six said he needed to pay off a $3,000 loan to his landlord, but got only about $1,200 for his kidney, meaning he remains deep in debt.

Sitting nearby, Mohammed Akram, a 22-year-old brick kiln worker, said he sold his kidney to pay off his father's debt.

"I cannot work like I did before. I cannot walk. I cannot run," said Akram. "I did this for my father but destroyed myself."

But on the other, there's a strong argument that selling and buying kidneys (which is illegal in the States) is the sort of thing that should be encouraged, to give sick patients who need a kidney a second chance at life, unlinked to the arbitrary fickleness of their place on an organ transplant list.

Pakistant 'kidney bazaar' thrives [CNN]