Posts filed under ‘Transplant Trade’
Health – Organ Scandal (2003)
Barcode (ID): 03D0625260 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Organ Donation, Transplant Trade
Date of Broadcast: 14th October 2003
Clip Duration: 4 min 4 seconds
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Description: Channel 5 report from India where exchanging a body part for a better standard of living is a trade very many of the country’s poor are willing to make. [INCLUDES SECRET FILMING]
- 1000 people die in Britain as they need organ donors
- Many buy organs from abroad to save their own lives
- India – selling a kidney is equal to 4 years of pay
- 1 person in every family has sold an organ
- One family only received a third of what they were promised
- UK person on average will pay £30,000 for one kidney
- Now illegal however trade still flourishes
- Surgeon speaking – ‘these people are so poor why can they not sell themselves’
- Hidden camera to find a donor – fuzzy section due to copyright reason
- Effects seen in hospitals across Britain as the NHS pick up bill
- e.g. people die from infection
- Only 1 in 5 are donors in the UK
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Sale of Human Kidneys (1998)
Barcode (ID): 03B0278334 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Transplant Trade
Date of Broadcast: 26th June 1998
Clip Duration: 3 min 33 seconds
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Good ethical debate on the ‘sale of kidneys’
Description: Leading transplant surgeons and academics are calling for the sale of human kidneys to be made legal. Channel 4 News debates the ethics of kidneys for sale.
- 5000 patients waiting for kidney transplants
- 9 years ago, practise of trading kidneys was condemed
- Rules by British Transplant Society – ‘Donor must act out of altruism, Donor receives no payment, Surgeons who disobey are expelled’
- Some have changed their minds and believe the trade in kidneys should be legalised
- Interview/debate on ethics of kidney trade
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Kidneys For Sale ‘Controversy’ (1989)
Barcode (ID): 06B0195985 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Transplant Trade
Date of Broadcast: 1st February 1989
Clip Duration: 3 min 7 seconds
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Description: ITN researchers in Istanbul meet with a man offering to sell one of his kidneys for £9000, in order to pay for medical treatment for his baby daughter. Labour MP Frank Dobson advises that the government should forbid any further transplants at the Humana Hospital, where kidneys were allegedly sold, until the controversy has been investigated. Health Minister Roger Freeman says the government does have the power to close private hospitals, if they do not conform to Health Service practice.
- Investigation after a Turkish man was flown to Britain for the sale of his kidney
- Fuzzy section – organ given to a man from Istanbul who died shortly after the operation
- Surgeon told ITN that in 2 cases patients were not related
- And centre have denied knowing money changed hands
- Draft Report – ‘Senior administrator to ensure compliance with official policy’ and ‘Tighter ward and theatre procedures’, ‘Written policy of good practise’
- Until this report, kidney transplants are to be suspended until published
- Mr Dobson says all transplants should be suspended
- ‘In 1985, the law was asked to be changed to not allow trade of organs for money – they did not do this’
- Reporting doctors to the British Medical Council
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India – Trade in Kidneys (1993)
Barcode (ID): 03B0122432 
Main Search Term and Keywords: Blood Plasma Trade, Transplant Trade, Organ Donation
Date of Broadcast: 1st July 1993
Clip Duration: 3 mins 19 seconds
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Good for illustrating an organ trade that is currently illegal in the UK and ethically unacceptable in the West
Description:
In India, a lucrative trade in human kidneys is flourishing. The poor are paid a small amount of money to part with their organs and aided by the medical establishment.
- 30-year-old women off to sell her kidney to wealthy businessman
- Illegal in Britain, ethically unacceptable in the West – India it is unlawful to take organs from the dead
- 70% young married women ‘line up’ to sell kidneys
- Unaware of risk of one kidney
- estimated 40% in one slum on outskirts of Madras – riddled with deceit and exploitation
- ‘Middle men’ cheating people out of their kidneys – big business
- Some doctors attempting to remove middle men and educating
- Chronic shortage of kidney dialysis machines so trade is essential
- Why should the west allow a little girl to die by imposing its moral principles about kidney transplants upon her?
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