FEATURE: Regulating Egypt’s multi-million dollar organ market

The problem of illegal organ-trade is a global one. In developing countries such as Pakistan, China, Moldova and Egypt, rich patients in need of transplants can often find someone desperate enough to part with their organs in return for some much needed cash.

In Egypt however, the organ donor industry – worth millions annually – stirs up its own cultural and religious issues, particularly with the introduction of laws to regulate organ trade.

The Egyptian Medical Association stated that the legislation, which aims to solve the issue of the growing black market trade fuelled by the wealth gap, would limit organ donation to between close family members.

With over 25 per cent of the country’s population living below the poverty line (on less than $2 per day) selling organs such as kidneys has become a lucrative, if not highly controversial, way of raising money in desperate economic times.

Former bus driver Mustafa Hamad, for example, became a donor in order to pay for a life saving operation for his 4-year-old son who was diagnosed with cancer. “I sold part of my liver to save my son,” said Hamad.

“But some people who come to me aren’t that desperate. They could find other solutions. Many men I see now want to sell their organs so they can afford to buy an apartment to get married. That doesn’t seem desperate enough to me. I try to tell them: ‘Be patient. You don’t need to do this.’ ”

The legislation has come under fire however, from clerics who argue that organ donation is forbidden. Interestingly, religion is also cited by those on the other side of the organ debate.

Hamad explained: “Even if something bad had happened to me during the operation, I would not have minded as long as the objective was to rescue my son. If one dies for the sake of his son, he gets rewarded by God.”