Cash for kidneys

The absence of established cadaveric programmes, which allow the donation of kidneys from the deceased, across the GCC, is forcing many patients to turn to the black market for organs.

The availability of kidneys through deceased donors varies across the region. While SCOT is renowned for its efforts in encouraging deceased donations, supply in many other Gulf states is limited through lack of similar programmes.

"This is a call from us as a professional community for the Gulf states to put more support and investment into the transplant area which is very much neglected in most of our countries," says Dr Abdulla.

In May, 78 countries drafted the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism, which called for a worldwide ban on organ trafficking.

Pakistan, the Philippines, India and China - which until recently sold organs from executed prisoners to foreigners - all supported the declaration.

Despite Egypt's support for the document and laws which forbid transplants between foreigners, the practice still continues.

"It is illegal for a foreign patient to undergo transplantation in Egypt but it happens almost every day," says Francis Delmonico, director of Medical Affairs at The Transplantation Society in the US.

In June a private hospital in the Giza region was shut down after authorities discovered a 26-year old Egyptian man trying to sell his kidney to a 75-year old Saudi man for $2000.

Around thirteen Kuwaiti patients have traveled to Egypt for illegal transplants since the beginning of the year according to Dr Mustafa Al-Mousawi, the president for the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation.

"We get patients coming back from Egypt with fresh transplants. We have had at least three in the last two to three weeks. Patients don't listen to us, they hear that someone went to Egypt and got a [new] kidney so they go," he says.

Of the 13 patients who traveled from Kuwait this year, one has already died and several have had complications following surgery. "It's a roll of the dice, sometimes they will come home okay, sometimes they will come home dead," warns Delmonico.

"The people that sell kidneys are the poorest of the poor; they are full of infections and they are selling their kidneys because they are so desperate for money so inevitably those people that get the kidneys will have infections," says Dr Ahmed.

According to the WHO, 66,000 kidney transplants were performed globally in 2005. "There really are enough functional organs that are cremated or buried to meet all of the regional needs so there is something disturbing that this potential resource is not used optimally," says Luc Noel, coordinator for Clinical Procedures at the WHO.

Investigations by the Egyptian Ministry of Health reveal that both doctors and hospitals have profited from these procedures. Egyptian Deputy Minister of Health, Saad Maghraby, tells Arabian Business that doctors involved in the operations currently being investigated earned around $80,000 per operation.

"The main doctor is the nephrologist who organises everything and pays everyone else. He gets the biggest portion of the money.... the donor is the last to benefit from this, getting around 10,000 ($1800) to 12,000 Egyptian pounds ($2175).

"Per capita [person] these hospitals earn 15,000 Egyptian pounds ($2700)," Maghraby explains.

"These patients used to go to India... and then after the legislation came in it moved to Iraq, after the war came Pakistan and then from there the Philippines. Egypt is a hot, hot spot today," says Professor Anwar Naqvi of the Sindh Institute of Urology.

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