Organ trafficking in Canada: Is it relevant to the urologist?

Abstract

Organ transplant commercialism has been condemned by the World Health Organization for decades. In 2008, the Istanbul Declaration proclaimed that the poor who sell their organs are being exploited, while unregulated and illegal transplantation place physical harm to both organ donor and recipient. In addition to the ethical issues that underlie the practice of transplant tourism, there is mounting evidence that transplant outcomes are poor. The authors have unequivocally shown that recipient mortality and morbidity rates are unacceptably high, likely as a result of cost-cutting and limited expertise in the practice of commercial transplantation.1 The fact that a sister renal transplant group in Ontario has published similar data indicate that this phenomenon is highly relevant to Canadian transplant centres.2 Accordingly, the Canadian Society of Transplantation has provided a policy statement to summarize the Canadian Healthcare Providers’ fiduciary and legal obligations to patients who participate in transplant tourism both before and after transplantation.3 All Canadian surgeons and physicians who provide care to renal transplant recipients should have a working knowledge of this policy statement.