Extra-legal Channels for Organ Donations

Pharmacists in some states may refuse to fill perscriptions on moral and ethical grounds. It seems Canadian hospitals can refuse to conduct an organ transplant on those same grounds, albeit for different reasons.

Baruch Tegegne, 61, has dialysis treatment four times a week and has needed a kidney transplant for a year. None of his relatives are compatible donors.

Rather than waiting on a transplant list with 3,000 other Canadians, a friend, documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, put an ad on a website pleading for a donor.

In late February, a man in India responded to the ad and offered Tegegne his kidney.       

Royal Victoria Hospital refused to perform the operation on the grounds that it could not be sure the man was not being paid under the table for his organ.

There is a moral hazard problem if there is a market for organs, and it is also difficult to determine when a kidney is freely donated and when the donor is being coerced. Lifesharers seems a good alternative, although I have heard some debate about the legality of this program as well.

But why didn't Tegegne just go to India to get the transplant done?

                          

Comments

[Dave Undis]

What debate about the legality of LifeSharers have you heard?

There are people who don't like LifeSharers, but LifeSharers is perfectly legal. In all 50 states, and under federal law.