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The case against a regulated system of living kidney sales

Nature Clinical Practice Nephrology volume 2, pages 466–467 (2006)Cite this article

The number of individuals on a waiting list to receive a kidney currently exceeds 100,000 globally. In the developing world, access to health care and financial issues are the major barriers to renal replacement therapy, but in the advanced industrialized nations, shortage of transplantable organs is the chief reason for continued growth of the waiting list. This gap between supply and demand could be reduced by allowing willing individuals to sell their organs. Donation of organs for money, however, was made illegal in most countries following the emergence of large-scale organ marketing operations supported by unscrupulous brokers and middlemen, especially in the developing countries of South Asia.

The arguments supporting organ sale need to be examined carefully. The differences between the sale of irreplaceable organs and that of essentially renewable tissues such as blood or sperm must be appreciated. Removal of a kidney involves major surgery under anesthetic, which is far more invasive than obtaining any of the aforementioned tissues. Furthermore, it is imperative that we recognize the immorality of allowing people to do serious damage to themselves for the sole purpose of making money. In some instances, individuals who have already sold a kidney have expressed their willingness to donate a second one and take the risk of living on dialysis.1

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Additional Professor of Nephrology,

    Vivekanand Jha & Kirpal S Chugh

  2. Emeritus Professor of Nephrology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India

    Vivekanand Jha & Kirpal S Chugh

Authors
  1. Vivekanand Jha
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  2. Kirpal S Chugh
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Correspondence to Kirpal S Chugh.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Jha, V., Chugh, K. The case against a regulated system of living kidney sales. Nat Rev Nephrol 2, 466–467 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpneph0268

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