Desperate Americans Buy Kidneys From Peru Poor in Fatal Trade

With organ transplants, technological capability outpaces supply. Selling organs is illegal in virtually all nations, but the laws do not deter desperate parties. “In the illegal organ trade, brokers scour the world’s slums, preying on the poor with promises of easy money and little risk in exchange for a kidney,” writes Michael Smith for Bloomberg. Kidney donors sign documents that no payment is exchanged, and medical tourism, with $100 billion in revenues for 2010, helps mask the trade, he reports. More than 100,000 US citizens await organ transplants, and less than 20 percent of them can count on finding a legal matching donor. With inadequate testing and procedures, the illegal trade puts both donor and recipients at risk. Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have passed laws prohibiting kidney donations to foreigners. – YaleGlobal