 | | | | |  | |  | Poverty has forced many people to sell a kidney |  | | |  |
| | | | | Who are the kidney sellers?
India has been a source of live kidney donors for years, but no one knows very much about the donors because kidney selling is illegal.
New research from Madras paints a depressing picture. Based on interviews with 305 people who had sold a kidney over a period of six years, it found that:
• most of the donors, 71%, were women.
• 96% said they had sold a kidney to pay off debts.
• 70% sold through a middleman, the rest direct to a clinic.
• the average payment actually received was US$1070, but middlemen and clinics had actually promised on average a third more than this, US$1410.
• 74% said they were as poor and debt bound after selling a kidney as before.
• average family income of the donors declined at a time when incomes in this region of India have risen- the number below the poverty line rose from 54% to 71%.
• 79% said they would not recommend selling a kidney.
The authors conclude that although patients with kidney failure deserve the best treatment "such treatment should not be based on the exploitation of poor people".
From the Journal of American Medical Association, 2 October 2002. | | 
The majority of kidney sellers said they wouldn't recommend it | |
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