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BODY MATTERS
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Organ Harvesting A statistical imbalance between the number of organs implanted in the UK and those donated raises questions: Is this due to reporting anomalies between the private and national health services? Is it due to a wider European system that allows for organs donated in one country to be implanted in another? Or is there beginning to be a source of organs available – especially to those prepared to pay for them? The British Liver Trust reports that we are running short of transplantable livers – the increasing culture of binge-drinking is reducing the sources available. Alcohol is still the largest cause of liver damage leading to the requirement for liver transplants, with hepatitis C the next. Changing attitudes to alcohol are seeing an increase in its misuse in other cultures too. A study in 2003 of ethnic differences in alcoholic cirrhosis in West Birmingham found that Asian men were over-represented compared with other ethnic groups. Almost all of these men were from non-Muslim backgrounds and younger than the patients from white backgrounds. Increased injecting drug use in some countries without needle exchange or public health programmes (eg Romania) are likely to lead to a significant rise in hepatitis B and C (as well as HIV), and if this is combined with a culture that has a high use of alcohol, livers will be additionally stressed. Trafficking is based on turning people into commodities – it is only a short step for their body parts and organs to become more valuable commodities than they themselves. Overview of UK Statistics for transplants The published report of statistics for organ transplants in the UK 2007-8 UK statistics for liver transplants Alcohol as a problem for the South Asian community in the UK Organ traffickers threaten nuns in Mozambique Azerbaijan probes child-organ traffickers China denies death-row organ sale
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