Global Organ Transplant Trade

By Sheridan VoyseyMonday 21 Jun 2010Social JusticeReading Time: 1 minute

Transplant Tourism, it’s a global trend where people from affluent nations, needing a transplant – say a kidney or liver – will travel to buy one in a country where organs are more available.

It sounds all very convenient, until you realise the dark underside. The practice has fuelled a worldwide system of illegal organ trafficking, with impoverished people selling parts of their own body just to put food on the table.

The World Health Organisation is cracking down on the problem, as are various medical organisations.

Listen Now – Professor Jeremy Chapman is the international president of the Transplantation Society; He’s a renal physician (kidney doctor) based in Sydney, he joins me now