The government is planning to ban all private transplants of organs from dead donors in the UK. The ban comes as a result of media reports of patients from countries such as Greece and Italy paying to get on waiting lists for organs from British people, so due to the fact that organs are scarce the general consensus is that to ensure NHS patients don’t miss out no one should be allowed to pay for transplants. At present the ban is only been approved in England but is expected to come into place across the rest of the UK by October.

An enquiry carried out revealed that over 700 transplants, most of which were liver transplants, had been carried out on non-UK patients over the past 10 years. Of the 700 transplants 631 of those transplants used organs from dead donors and, of those, 314 were from outside the EU. It is worth pointing out that the enquiry uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing with regards to the allocation of the organs but came to the conclusion that no one should be able to pay for such operations. According EU law, some patients can receive treatment in other countries, if approved by their healthcare system, which then foots the bill, however the NHS should be more cautious when assessing patients’ eligibility as it is possible that some patients are receiving treatment when they should be refused. Some say that the NHS should work with other EU countries to help develop their own transplant scheme.

The ban only applies to transplants from dead donors private transplants can still be carried out using organs from living donors. Critics of the ban claim that the only reason people pay for transplants is the NHS takes so long that you will probably be dead before you get it. They also point out that it is illegal to sell your organs so why should hospitals be allowed to sell organs to the highest bidder, especially when there are not enough organs available for citizens of the UK. The organs should be allocated on the basis of who is in the greatest need instead of who can afford to pay.

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