By Manny Mogato
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has banned the sale oforgans to foreigners because of a surge in the illegal trade ofkidneys and other organs taken from the poor, the healthsecretary said on Tuesday.
Francisco Duque said the government was also revising itspolicy on organ transplants and was promoting the use of organsfrom dead bodies as well as living related donors to discouragethe thriving illegal trade.
"They feast on our poverty," Duque told a news conference,saying the donors, frequently impoverished and ill-educated,were getting as little as $1,000 (504 pounds) to $5,000 for akidney.
A kidney transplant operation can cost an additional350,000 to 500,000 pesos (4,187 pounds-6003 pounds) at a statehospital and could go as high as 1 million to 2 million pesosin more than 20 private medical facilities in the Philippines.
Hundreds of foreigners have come to the Philippines forsuch transplants, attracted by the relatively low prices.
In 2007 alone, 50 percent of about 1,050 kidney transplantswere performed on foreigners, clearly violating a 2002directive allowing foreigners only 10 percent of annual kidneytransplants.
Only 690 cases of kidney transplants were recorded in 2006with more than 60 percent of them involving foreigners from theMiddle East and Japan.
Almost all transplants for foreigners involved livingnon-related donors, officials said.
(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnanand Alex Richardson)