Ethical problems in ex vivo or cadaver organ transplantation: should the donation be paid?

Abstract

Financial incentives for organ donation (from living or cadaveric donors) have been considered ethically acceptable by some bioethicists, and recently, according to the media, by Prof. Gary Becker, Nobel Laureate for Economy. However, the only countries to have approved a law allowing financial incentives for organ donation are Iran in 1988 and, in some way and much later, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. In Europe financial incentives for donors are prohibited, except maybe in Austria. In Germany, it is forbidden to purchase organs not only in the home country, but all over the world. The author was involved, as peer reviewer of a major international Transplant journal, in the evaluation of some papers concerning paid kidney living donors in Iran, and therefore made an extensive literature search on this topic and more generally on paid kidney living donation all over the world. The situation in Italy will also be reported and analysed.