How To Sell Organs (and other unwanted parts)

We've all seen it in film and TV. A clichéd young man, usually deeply in debt, desperately needs cash to pay his overweight, deep voiced, loan shark. He struggles to think during a short montage and suddenly comes up with the most astoundingly original and consequence-free idea!

"I'll sell my organs!"

We laugh/sigh/turn off and the plot continues onwards to its laboured conclusion. But what if this was possible?

First things first, organ donation for money does happen.

The American Journal for Transplantation estimates that as many as 10% of kidney donations are not in fact donations. Usually someone with the necessary few hundred thousand dollars will travel to a country with a lower cost of living and buy one from the desperate.

So we know there's a demand for this, let's think about supply. Obviously, unless you're thinking about your kid's inheritance, anything you donate has to be non-essential or re-growable. This essentially limits you to kidneys, livers and small bowels.

Let's talk about logistics; unfortunately organ sale is illegal in a lot of the Western world. The US has the National Organ Transplant Act, the UK has the Human Tissue Act and it's a similar story in Canada, France, Germany, etc. For the adventurous Iran has a thriving legal kidney market and in India and Pakistan the trade enjoys a quasi-legal status.

Now onto the bottom line. In the parts of Asia that allow it, you could make as much as $1200 for a kidney or liver. If you want to deal with the organised gangs that act as brokers for the final sale that number could jump to as much as $20,000.

Think of the goldmine you're filtering urine with.

Now you can see why the temptation is there for the desperate. However what's the downside?

After donating livers and kidneys, complications from surgery often occur. You may be limited on what you can eat or drink, you may have damage to other organs from botched surgery and if you're remaining kidney fails later in life you've already sold your backup.

Now let's consider if you were beyond desperate. What if you were forced? This is big business for one country: China.

In 2006, China is estimated to have carried out 8,000 kidney transplants, 3,000 liver transplants and 200 heart transplants. This may seem (and it is) a small number for a country with a population of 1.3 billion. The terrifying fact behind these transplants are that these organs came from prisoners executed by the state and it has been suggested by some organisations that some of these prison sentences were increased to execution for the sole purpose of organ sale.

Let's summarise, it is most definitely possible to earn as much as $20,000 for an organ if you are prepared to:

• Travel to non-tourist areas of Asia;
• Undergo an operation involving general anaesthetic, often in less than ideal sanitary conditions;
• Take a risk of other organs being taken without consent;
• Deal with shady brokers with links to (usually violent) organised gangs;
• Live the rest of your life with possible medical problems, limitations and regret.

Your choice.