SURGEONS, lawyers and ethicists from 78 countries have said a resounding 鈥渘o鈥� to transplant tourism. In a global declaration, they are calling on governments to ban transplants of kidneys and other organs taken from vulnerable people, who may be so poor that they have to sell their organs.
The also calls for surgeons to be stripped of their medical qualifications if they persist. Signed by 152 professionals in Istanbul, Turkey, at the beginning of May, the draft was issued on 7 July by bodies including The Transplantation Society, the International Society of Nephrology and the World Health Organization.
Francis Delmonico, medical affairs officer of The Transplantation Society, says that pressure from the declaration鈥檚 backers has already helped China, Pakistan and the Philippines to ban such transplants.
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鈥淚 think there will be more pressure because of this international consensus,鈥� says co-signatory Adrian McNeil, chief executive of the UK Human Tissue Authority.
