Kidney Sales Brisk On India's Black Market

Desperate tsunami survivors sacrificing their kidneys, getting ripped off by doctors and dealers
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted May 9, 2007 10:58 AM CDT

Women impoverished by the catastrophic tsunami of 2004 are selling their kidneys on India's lucrative black market in ever increasing numbers. Wired reports on an international organ-donor scandal in which desperate donors are often ripped off by unscrupulous doctors and dealers who take the organs and keep the money.

With crackdowns on organ dealing—now illegal—ineffective,  India may legalize the business in the hope of regulating it. It's a controversial proposal. "The argument that law is not able to curb organ trafficking  is no justification for allowing organ sale," says R.R. Kishore, an opponent of legalization. (More India stories.)

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