Pakistan Abolishes Kidney Market and Ushers in a New Era of Ethical Transplantation

Renal transplantation in Pakistan started in 1979 from living related donors in public sector hospitals. Initially, the activity was as low as 50 cases per year but gradually rose to 100 per year by the mid 1990s [1]. Shortage of donors for lack of a deceased donor program and rapidly-developing expertise lead to unrelated commercial transplants in the private sector where the poor and impoverished society were exploited to donate kidneys for US$ 1000 to 2000 [2]. By the year 2000, the number of transplants per year exceeded 1000—more than 70% of which were unrelated commercial donors [1,2]. Although initially, the majority of the recipients were local, the changing scenario in the region lead Pakistan to become the largest center of transplant tourism by the year 2005—where almost 1500 foreigners received transplants every year in private sector hospitals [3].