Public solicitation of organ donors grabs the spotlight

The UNOS board of directors is slated to address individuals' efforts in obtaining an organ just as such efforts are generating more media attention.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Nov. 15, 2004.

Recent medical ethics-related news stories have taken on a tone that runs disturbingly close to that of the Jerry Springer show.

A man convicted of selling LSD recently donated a kidney to a stranger who advertised his desperate need for an organ on a commercial Web site. The donor later surrendered to sheriff's deputies and is jailed, while still taking medication, for failing to pay a reported $10,000 in child support.

Another man whose medical tests disqualified his potential kidney donation to a stranger is now suing the man in a Wisconsin small claims court for travel expenses and the wages he lost while taking a day off work to speak to the media about the transplant.

Even as the United Network for Organ Sharing is working on a policy to address public solicitation for organ donations, the situation is threatening to spin out of the organization's control.

And experts are starting to wonder whether the organ allocation system will still be able to steer donated organs to those who most need them in a fair and equitable manner.

An Internet-arranged transplant was performed at Denver's Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center by surgeon Igal Kam, MD, who said his first commercially facilitated transplant will also be his last.

"The concern that I have all the time is that commercially arranged transplants will have people going through the back door and exchanging money for organs in the United States," Dr. Kam said. "I am not going to, at this stage, perform any arranged transplants because of these concerns.