Philippines bans kidney transplant 'tourism'

The Philippines today announced a ban on kidney transplants involving overseas patients in an effort to stamp out the murky organ trade, which preys on some of the country's most vulnerable and impoverished people. The thriving "transplant tourism" trade made the Philippines one of the world's cheapest places for wealthy foreign patients seeking to buy a new kidney. But gangs of organ traffickers often lured poor Filipinos into giving up one of their kidneys - invariably for a pittance - as the traders profited from the sales. "They feast on our poverty," said Francisco Duque, the Philippines health secretary, as he unveiled new rules barring living donors from giving organs to non-relatives. "The sale of one's body parts is condemnable and improper. We have to stop it."