Imagine you need a liver transplant, but there’s a problem. There is, of course, a shortage of organs and unfortunately you are the 52nd person on the list in your region. What do you do?
Well, if you’re a Saudi national, you pull some strings, and you get the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia to agree to pay the hospital about 25 percent more than a typical liver transplantation would cost. Mysteriously, you then go to the top of the list and get your liver.
At least that’s what happened at St. Vincent Medical Center in California. Staff at the hospital allegedly falsified numerous documents in order to cover up the blatant sale of the liver to the Saudi national.
In fact, St. Vincent’s appears to have been the place to get a liver if you happened to be a wealthy foreigner. Nationally, the United Organ Sharing Network decrees that no more than 5 percent of organs should go to foreigners. Nationwide the rate is much lower, according to the Los Angeles Times, but at St. Vincent’s 8 percent of all liver transplants at the hospital went to foreigners(and St. Vincent’s is a very large transplantation center).
St. Vincent’s organ transplantation program has been suspended and UNOS is still investigating. What they should do in response to this create an open market in organs and allow the rest of us to get in on the money. Organ selling — its not just for corrupt California hospitals anymore.
Source:
Hospital Halts Organ Program. Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2005.