Can Paying People Increase Number of Kidney Donors?

Paying people to donate kidneys could help thousands of patients waiting for the organ transplant. A new study has found that paying donors $10,000 could increase the number of transplants by about five percent.

Nearly, 97,000 people are currently waiting for a kidney transplant in the U.S. according to the National Kidney Foundation. The new study found that giving financial incentives to donors would increase the number of kidneys and reduce cost of dialysis.

Lianne Barnieh, PhD, and Dr. Braden Manns, at the University of Calgary were co-authors of the study. 

Researchers said that paying people for kidneys would also lower medical costs of treating people with kidney disorders and would even improve their quality of life, according to a news release.

"Current trends regarding the use of financial incentives in medicine suggest that the time is ripe for new consideration of payments for living kidney donation. Reassurance about the ethical concerns, however, can come only through empirical evidence from actual experience," Matthew Allen, BA, and Peter Reese (University of Pennsylvania) wrote in an accompanying article.

There are many legal and moral issues to be considered before using money to increase number of donors. Organ sale is illegal in the U.S.

The study is published in the journal Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Kidney trade is a flourishing business in many parts of the world. Recently, The World Health Organization had said that over 10,000 kidneys are sold illegally every year. A kidney in the black-market could cost as much as $200,000. However, people from developing countries such as India, China and Bangladesh, who sell their organs, get as little as $5,000.

Iran is one of the few countries where selling kidney for profit is legal. There is currently no shortage of people wanting to sell their kidneys in the country.

Laws supporting kidney sale is looked upon as a practical idea by health experts, despite its many legal issues.