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SINGAPORE: Doctors say strict measures are in place to prevent people from donating organs for money.
Getting to the operating theatre for a kidney transplant can take up to three months of checks when a living donor is involved.
At the National University Hospital (NUH), donors go for repeated interviews, medical checks and psychiatric assessments to ensure they are aware of the risks and are donating for altruistic reasons.
Doctors and organ transplant coordinators pay particular attention when screening for non-related transplants or when the donor is a foreigner.
All transplant cases need to seek the hospital's ethics committee's approval.
Professor A Vathsala, director for adult renal transplant programme at NUH, said: "There are a lot of subtle clues and we look for stories that gel. We look for that emotive input between donor and recipient and sometimes that care and the concern comes through in conversations and we repeat ourselves many times. And when you do that, an inconsistent story does come out."
3,500 people in Singapore have kidney failure. Of these, 600 are on the transplant list, but will have to wait up to nine years for a cadaveric donation.
However, trading in organs is not a solution, said Professor Vathsala.
"Organ trafficking tourism for transplantation will all become rampant and the poor and the disadvantaged will become donors of the wealthy ill," he said.
Last week, two Indonesian men were convicted of organ trading in Singapore. One man intended to sell a kidney to C K Tang's executive chairman Tang Wee Sung for S$23,700.
Lawyer Palaniappan Sundararaj said a patient could face a fine of up to S$10,000, jail of up to 12 months or both if he or she knowingly accepts a sold kidney for transplant.
"The prosecution would have to prove the patient knew the kidney was sold. This is not always the case, for example, when the recipient is a child or when an adult patient has an over-enthusiastic relative who sources the organ," he said.
The lawyer said it is up to the prosecution to decide whether to press charges against a patient for buying an organ.
In Japan last year, a husband and wife were found guilty of buying a kidney for transplant. They received a one-year jail term which was suspended for three years. - CNA/ir
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