The Philippines has banned the sale of organs to foreigners because of a surge in the illegal trade of kidneys and other organs taken from the poor, the health secretary said on Tuesday.
Francisco Duque said the government was also revising its policy on organ transplants and was promoting the use of organs from dead bodies as well as living related donors to discourage the thriving illegal trade.
"They feast on our poverty," Duque told a news conference, saying the donors, frequently impoverished and ill-educated, were getting as little as $1,000 (504 pounds) to $5,000 for a kidney.
A kidney transplant operation can cost an additional 350,000 to 500,000 pesos (4,187 pounds-6003 pounds) at a state hospital and could go as high as 1 million to 2 million pesos in more than 20 private medical facilities in the Philippines.
Hundreds of foreigners have come to the Philippines for such transplants, attracted by the relatively low prices.
In 2007 alone, 50 percent of about 1,050 kidney transplants were performed on foreigners, clearly violating a 2002 directive allowing foreigners only 10 percent of annual kidney transplants.
Only 690 cases of kidney transplants were recorded in 2006 with more than 60 percent of them involving foreigners from the Middle East and Japan.
Almost all transplants for foreigners involved living non-related donors, officials said.(Reuters)
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