Australian doctors concerned over ''Transplant tourism''

December 24, 2005

Health industry seniors here have reacted with horror and disgust over the news that dozens of Australians are travelling to India and China to buy transplant organs.

Seven transplant recipients are reported to have travelled to China to receive organs of the death row prisoners.

A significant number of them have also received organs of Indian 'donors' in what has been dubbed as ''transplant tourism''.

India was rocked by an organ transplant scandal in the recent past and it is believed that the ''transplant tourists'' are also receiving organs arranged by dubious means.

But Australian critics of the trend to travel overseas for organ transplantation are especially horrified to note that the recipients are exploiting corrupt work practices in China to receive organs of the executed prisoners.

Monash Medical Centre's Dr Ian Main is among the senior health experts to have raised the issue.

He said that he was aware of six organ recipients from the state of Victoria who had paid for kidneys to be transplanted in the West Asia, India and China.

''I believe one of the patients that I am aware of had that process (through an executed Chinese prisoner) but the patient themselves wasn't sure,'' Dr Main said.

''The patients are often reluctant to give details because they are aware that it was something that is frowned upon,'' he added.

The main reason behind desperation to buy organs through dubious means lies in the ''blow-out'' in Australian waiting lists for kidneys.

About 1600 people are reportedly awaiting transplants, forcing those at the back of the queues to take desperate chances and travel to destinations like India and China to buy kidneys.

China executes over 5,000 prisoners every year.

Even though the recipients are believed to be paying 20,000 Australian dollar on average for such transplants, some of them return with infections or other complications after undergoing surgery in third-world hospitals.

One Melbourne transplant surgeon has reportedly said he had to remove a kidney transplanted into a Victorian patient in Iraq or Iran several years ago because the organ was not "plumbed" properly.

According to another Melbourne-based doctor quoted by The Courier Mail, some had returned from overseas with ''wounds still open'' or discharged prematurely from hospitals with post-operative complications.

Copyright © 2000-2005 Suni System (P) Ltd.

This article posted January 15, 2006.