Policy Statement of Canadian Society of Transplantation and Canadian Society of Nephrology on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism (original) (raw)

Transplant Tourism and Organ Trafficking: Current Practices, Controversies and Solutions

International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health

The controversial subject of transplant tourism has been neglected in the travel medicine literature. According to the Declaration of Istanbul, travel for transplantation can be regarded as transplant tourism if it involves organ trafficking and/or commercialised transplantation activities. While no registry of transplant tourism activities exists, published case series point to significant negative clinical outcomes. Adverse outcomes among donors include postoperative depression and anxiety, deterioration in health status, poor surgical wound care, and negative financial effects. Poor perioperative management, inadequate immunosuppression, blood transfusion-associated infections, antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and invasive fungal infections, are among the most commonly reported complications in transplanted patients. Iran operates a legal and ethically regulated system of rewarded altruistic kidney donation. Travel medicine practitioners have a role to play in protecting...

Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism: A Commentary on the Global Realities

American Journal of Transplantation, 2008

The extent of organ sales from commercial living donors (CLDs) or vendors has now become evident. At the Second Global Consultation on Human Transplantation of the World Health Organization's (WHO) in March 2007, it was estimated that organ trafficking accounts for 5-10% of the kidney transplants performed annually throughout the world. Patients with sufficient resources in need of organs may travel from one country to another to purchase a kidney (or liver) mainly from a poor person. Transplant centers in 'destination' countries have been well known to encourage the sale of organs to 'tourist' recipients from the 'client' countries.