Britain Considers Allowing Payments To Organ Donors

LONDON - The British government said Sunday it was considering allowing organ donors to be paid; a move critics say could fuel the commercial trade in body parts.

The Department of Health said officials were considering changes to the Human Organ Transplant Act of 1989, which makes it an offense to receive payment in return for supplying organs for transplant.

"Nothing has been ruled in or out," a department spokeswoman said on customary condition of anonymity. "One of the questions included in our review ... was whether the prohibition of commercial dealings in organs from living and/or deceased people should remain," she added.

"We are currently considering the responses we have received on this consultation."

The trade in organs has recently made headlines in Britain, with two doctors facing disciplinary action after allegedly telling patients they could obtain kidneys for transplant from live donors.

Both men were trapped by journalists trying to expose the illegal trade in organs, bought from impoverished donors in southern Asia on behalf of rich patients in the West.

Some doctors say allowing cash payments would encourage relatives to donate organs such as kidneys to family members.

But critics say it could set a dangerous precedent.

"We do need to reform the arcane 40-year-old laws which govern transplants, but introducing payments or incentives to donate is not a road we should be going down," said Tom Watson, a lawmaker from the governing Labor Party.

"Once you say it's OK for a relative to be paid for an organ, you're on slippery slope to saying it's OK to have a commercial trade in human organs," he added.

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.

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This article posted October 26, 2002.