Ban Transplant Tourism is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart. My three-year-old granddaughter received a liver transplant at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. when she was seven months old. We were lucky her father was a match and was able to donate 13 percent of his liver so this infant could live.
It hasn’t been without its ups and downs. We give thanks each and every day as we watch this child grow older and feistier. She has a whole lot to say for herself and about the world.
In recent years, people have been known to buy organs and transplant tourism is gaining momentum. Patients from rich countries go to poor ones for transplants. In a recent meeting in Madrid, The World Health Organization and the European Union tackled the problem and have adopted a stop “transplant tourism” united front.
The organ transplant process needs several steps to be successful.
1. Healthy organs must be harvested.
2. Quality and compatibility of the organs must be certified
3. Rejection of a new organ is always a possibility.
4. Close monitoring of transplant patients is mandatory.
Overseas transplant tourism is a dangerous proposition for both the local donor and the rich transplant tourist. Further problems may develop should the organ be rejected after a tourist has returned home, disrupting the established transplant programs in their home countries.
The five countries considered worst offenders are: China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Egypt and Colombia. Poor people sell organs and their families can live for years off the proceeds. Unfortunately, many of these “donors” are not fully informed of long-term physical ramifications.
In addition, organs must be precisely “harvested” and the transplant must take place within hours. All too frequently, these organs are inferior in quality and may have deteriorated because of excess time between harvest and implantation.
Anyone who has any experience with a transplant knows the surgery is only the beginning. Recipients need constant and on-going follow-up. Replacing a liver is not the same as changing a worn-out muffler on your car. One doesn’t receive an organ and assume it might not be rejected. Rejection of the organ creates additional problems for the patient and further inequities within the legitimate transplant system.
Here in the U.S. there is a strict waitlist for organ transplants. UNOS (The United Network for Organ Sharing) tracks the number of people waiting for transplants. As of today, 106,688 are listed in its directory.
Position on this list is perhaps the most important factor for patients awaiting an organ transplant. The most critical a patients are given priority and one of the tests is whether a previous transplant is being rejected. In this case a botched tourism transplant may result in the patient being moved to the top of the waitlist, usurping organs from other people who’ve been on the waiting list longer.
The organ transplant world is not governed by uniform rules across our planet. Some countries have Presumed Consent and people can opt out.
Here in the U.S. donors must agree in advance to be organ donors. This is one of the reasons people are asked to designate if they’re willing donors on their drivers’ licenses.
In the past twenty years, an increasing number of “living” donor transplants have taken place. If this is something that might be of interest, check out Recycle Me for more information. If people are going to donate organs or tissue, they should be informed and never coerced.
This is a whole new world, where people, who might have died not so many years ago, can live quality lives.
Thank goodness there are additional options to illegal organ trafficking. How many Consumer Traveler readers have opted to be organ donors?
Karen Fawcett is president of Bonjour Paris
Karen Fawcett loves to travel anywhere. Karen was a founder & president BonjourParis.com while living in Paris for more than 25 years. She has traveled across Europe and the rest of the world. She is now based in Washington, DC.
