Finally, I see a third option - a Government regulated programme. This would enable vendors to sell and deposit a kidney into a virtual organ bank. Efforts could be made to ensure that informed consent was given and sellers would be reasonably compensated for their time and risk.

There would be regulated testing of donor kidneys and provenance would be known. Counselling and financial advice could also be given. This would prevent exploitation of the poor and prevent the brokers and organised crime from profiting. There could be a way of separating the treatment and payment and not necessarily making it payment from the recipient. What about the money that is being freed up from getting people off dialysis? We have seen this costing £30,000 a year so could we not use some of that money to be re-directed?

Kidneys could be distributed according to some fair conception of medical priority and there would be no direct sales or purchases and no exploitation of low income countries and their populations. A regulatory system would allow vendors to receive adequate after-care and allow things like malpractice suits which would help safeguard the process.

Please note, this page is a summary of the full conference speech (click here for the full transcript).

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