Transplant Tourism -Risks & Benefits

What is Transplant Tourism?

• Transplant tourism consists of going to a foreign country to have organ transplant.

• This form of medical tourism is practiced by people who need urgent medical attention dueto either end stages of chronic diseases which lead to multiple organ failure or when thepatient has sustained lesions damaging internal organs.

• Most of the times, people prefer going abroad for a transplant for benefits such as no waiting lists for a donor organ or cheaper medical expenses.

• Some of the hotbeds for transplant tourism are underdeveloped countries, where althoughmedical services might be as good as back home, they are several times cheaper. Amongthese countries we can include India, Mexico, Thailand and even Turkey.

Benefits of Transplant Tourism

The benefits of transplant tourism, if we are to look at the big picture,can be seen in the number of people recuperating after the surgeryand leading on healthy, normal lives.

From the patient’s perspective

• transplant tourism can help better his live through a new healthyorgan

• the promise of a new, disease-free life

• cheaper medical bills

• transplant tourism can help improve a certain area of medicalinterest by allowing doctors, and medical staff in general, betterthemselves in performing a specific medical procedure.

• the medical personnel in charge of the intervention have the chanceof becoming specialized in that particular field

• the more transplants being made in a certain country or hospital, themore money there is for research and development

• the more donors you have the more organs you have, this imposesthe need for a centralized system in order to keep track of donorsand recipients, which leads to a better functionality of the medicalsystem in itself

From the surgeon’s perspective

From the donor’s perspective

• donating an organ implies the mostconsideration for human life and the courageto undergo an operation voluntarily

• organ donors are the real heroes of this story

• the risks they expose themselves to aresometimes even greater than the ones therecipient is exposed to

The Risks of Transplant Tourism

• It depends a great deal firstly on the legal bindings of the country that you arevisiting

• Also, there might be a problem with the donor itself. Many of the living donorswhich are willing to sell different organs for some quick cash come from animpoverished background. You may not even be aware that you are part of anillegal organ donation.

• The risk of the body rejecting the organ.

• Ethical issues. Supposedly the operation is a success but you relapse within aweek. Not many doctors operate in order to straighten out where anotherdoctor messed up.

• Transplant tourism is a very good and a very bad idea at the same time. You must try and do yourhomework as best as you can regarding everything that might come up during the wholeprocess: local transplant laws, national and international donor registries, health insurancecoverage, medical facilities and staff.

• It’s a good idea to have a medical tourism company that you trust to arrange things for you.

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