Foreigners barred from receiving organ transplants in Philippines
Danny Chan
The Philippines will ban kidney transplants for foreigners as part of a government attempt to end the illicit trade in
human organs
purchased from the poor. Francisco Duque, the Philippine health secretary, told a news conference that violators could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined as much as P2 million for illegal transplants.
Mr. Duque said the ban will come into effect in May although foreigners who are related to Filipino citizens are exempt.
“The poor always end up as the ones being abused,” Mr. Duque told the press conference on April 29. “The sale of one’s body part is condemnable and ethically improper. We have to stop it.” He said kidney transplants had increased by over 60 per cent between 2002 and 2006.
Mr. Duque pointed out that among the estimated 620 kidney transplants performed in the Philippines in 2006, 63 per cent involved foreign recipients, primarily from the Middle East and Europe. The figures were in violation of Health Department regulations stipulating foreign recipients are limited to 10 per cent of transplants. The department added 14 out of 24 hospitals performing kidney transplants exceeded the ministry’s guidelines and could face sanctions.
The secretary added President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo endorsed the ban which takes effect in about three weeks. Kidney donations will be strictly monitored by a new regulatory body, he said. China and Pakistan, among the world’s most notorious organ-donor nations, have enacted legislation to outlaw the trade so would-be recipients could instead be tempted to turn to the Philippines, Mr. Duque opined.
While the ban applies to all organs, only kidneys have been successfully transplanted so far, Mr. Duque added. He commented that the government would gradually extend the ban to cover all organ transplants from non-related Filipinos to other Filipinos.
Esperanza Cabral, the social welfare secretary, said 500 transplants on foreigners were performed last year. In three townships in southeast Manila, 109 indigent villagers sold their kidneys to visitors from Israel and the Middle East. Television footage of the villagers depicted the donors bearing surgery scars after selling their kidneys for about $4,460 per organ.
A large number of donors also suffer from such ailments as urinary track infections and high blood pressure due to inadequate treatment following their surgery. Ms. Cabral added a permanent proscription of all kidney transplants for foreigners would assist officials in eliminating the black market for organs.
Amihan Abueva of Asia Acts Against Child Trafficking, a non-governmental organization that advocated the ban, said hospitals had been classifying the kidneys as donations to evade the law. She said even government-operated hospitals were openly flouting the government’s 10-per-cent limit.
She described how brokers would prey on the country’s impoverished residents in Manila and the provinces. They would arrange payments of $2,000 to $10,000 to the donor for a kidney; the broker would subsequently receive $1,000 to $1,500 per transaction.
Ms. Abueva also cautioned the new guidelines could be ignored or that middlemen could find loopholes around the ban.
News reports have also detailed how some donors have died following transplant-related complications, while others stayed for months in apartments near Manila while waiting for recipients. The World Health Organization has identified China, Pakistan, Egypt, Colombia and the Philippines as the world’s leaders in the illicit trade.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and the Philippines Society of Nephrology both lauded the ban on organ trafficking.
Bishop Jose Oliveros, head of the bishops’ bioethics committee, said in an interview the “temporary ban among the foreigners having their kidney transplant here is a good step to stop the rampant sale and commercialization of organ donation.”
Dave Tan, executive director of the Philippine Kidney Dialysis Foundation, told reporters the ban would sharply curtail the black market for human organs.
“For foreign patients the ban will be very strong,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a black market because there is a lot of international pressure and the spotlight is one the Philippines.
