Organs Trade Strains Ethics Debate; as a Leading Surgeon Calls for the Trade in Human Organs to Be Legalised, the Western Mail's Health Editor Madeleine Brindley Asks Whether Buying and Selling Body Parts Is Morally Reprehensible or a Drastic Solution to a Growing Problem

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Byline: Madeleine Brindley

LITTLE more than seven months ago, we were outraged that a doctor was facilitating an illegal trade in human organs.

Dr Jarnail Singh, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was suspended for six months by the General Medical Council after he advised a patient on how to arrange for a live kidney donor to be flown to the UK from the Indian sub-continent.

But last night a leading figure in the medical profession called for a change to the complex laws governing organ transplantation throughout the UK, to legalise the trade in human organs.

Professor Nadey Hakim, the president of the Royal Society of Medicine's transplant committee, believes such a move will not only end the current global practice of transplant tourism but will also go some way to address the growing shortage of human organs available for transplantation.

``As this trade is going on …