‘Dramatic’ increase in legal donors needed

A “dramatic” increase in the number of organ donors is necessary if illegal organ trafficking is to be tackled, a leading medical journal has argued today.

“Urgently needed” initiatives include the proposal for the European Union-wide donor card, an editorial in the Lancet claims.

Last week the European Commission suggested that people should carry a card indicating their willingness to donate an organ after death to increase donations and transplantations.

Some people have backed proposals to make commercial donation legal, as they argue it would ensure donors are properly checked and cared for.

People opposed to this base their arguments on moral grounds, arguing that commercial donation could widen the gap between rich and poor and that human organs are too precious to be traded.

But the Lancet argues that punitive measures will drive illegal organ trafficking underground.

“Unless both living and deceased organ donations increase exponentially to meet demand, there will always be desperate people willing to do anything to receive a kidney, or other body parts, and those living in abject poverty who are desperate enough to risk being donors,” the editorial states.

It also argues that the cultural and social reasons why donations are decreasing should also be addressed.

“Otherwise,” the Lancet concludes, “although ethically and morally suspect, the case for legalising and regulating the commercial sale of human organs may appear to have the upper hand.”