Relatives could be paid to donate a kidney to patients under a controversial scheme being considered by the government.

The proposals were raised in a Department of Health consultation paper which gave people until last Monday to respond.

They come amid mounting concern over the Third World trade in organs.

Two doctors have been found guilty of becoming involved in the growing trade in recent weeks.

A health department spokeswoman confirmed ministers were now considering the move.

Compensation

She said it was part of a wide-ranging review but added that nothing had been ruled in or out.

"The Human Organ Transplant Act 1989 makes it an offence to take or receive payment for the supply of organs for transplant," she said.

The government must think very carefully about this

Dr Liam Fox

"One of the questions included in our review... was whether the prohibition of commercial dealings in organs from living and/or deceased people should remain.

"We are currently considering the responses we have received on this consultation."

Professor Sir Peter Bell, vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons and professor of surgery at the University of Leicester, backed the move.

He told The Observer newspaper compensation payments should be offered to relatives for the trauma they had faced.

"You could do a lot to encourage live donation from relatives," he said.

Some people in poor countries have sold organs for cash

"As long as it is done with proper informed consent, it is a thing to think about.

"Relatives giving kidneys do the best of all. You get the best results."

But shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox warned the government to think very carefully about considering any move to pay organ donors.

"Commercial trading in organs raises serious moral issues," he said.

"We cannot have such an important issue treated with Third World ethics."

Cash for kidneys

Last week a BBC investigation found that many of the poorest people in India sell their kidneys for the equivalent of just �400.

The men and women who volunteer to have a kidney removed say they need to money to pay off debts and to buy food.

The Indian government introduced a law to ban the trade in human organs a decade ago.

However, critics say that move simply drove the practice underground.

Many people in India sell their kidneys to westerners who have been waiting for a transplant.