Market Approach to Kidney Transplant ‘Troubling’ and ‘Radical’ for Evening Broadcast

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If you can buy sperm or eggs, why are kidneys so radical to ABC? And what happens to the people who are dying if we don't change the system?

ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" called a doctor's market driven approach to organ donation, in which individuals could sell kidneys to insurers, "radical" November 19.

"Now an outspoken doctor is proposing a radical solution, allow donors to sell one of their kidneys," anchor Gibson began.

University of Minnesota Children's Hospital's Dr. Arthur Matas supported a regulated market only for kidneys and has said that ruling out kidney sales completely is like sentencing some patients to death.

Reporter John McKenzie also added that buying and selling kidneys "is deeply troubling to most people" and "virtually every major medical association opposes the idea."

Dr. Gabriel Danovich from UCLA Medical School told ABC News that the sellers would probably be the most desperate for money and would not even tell doctors their medical history before operation.

Dr. Matas's plan (that also proposes regulation by the government) to ensures donors have a physical, psychological evaluation and free long-term health care afterwards.

"It sounds like the wrong thing to do, to be buying kidneys, until you start realizing that until we do something dramatic we're going to have a continuation of this situation where patients are dying on dialysis and their quality of life is worse," Matas told ABC.