(September 3) The Philippine government announced that they will regulate the sale of kidneys.

(September 3) eBay released a "zero tolerance" statement about the auctioning of illegal items on their web site.

(September 2) The eBay kidney auction story has now been picked up by the national and international news services, which means it will be in the newspapers this weekend. No one is pointing out the obvious fact that the "seller" and "buyer" probably wouldn't be compatible tissue matches.

(September 2) Here is an article that describes the plight of several "paid" kidney donors in the Philippines. Many sold kidneys for $2000-$3000, found themselves temporarily "rich", but now regret the action.

Here is an article from the Guardian in London about people selling organs for cash in Iran. Kidneys have been sold for approximately $1200.

(September 1st) In a new twisted use of technology, someone using the name "hchero" was trying to sell one of their kidneys on the internet auction web site eBay for $25,000. !! This "item" was put up on August 26th and it attracted no bids until Sept. 1st. Then, several bids were quickly made and the price went up to $5.7 million. It looks like the auction turned into a farce (I hope!). It was finally removed by eBay on Sept 2nd.



[This message has been edited by Gary Peterson (edited 09-04-1999).]

National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA)
Sec. 301(a)
It is unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation.......

Replenishable tissues (blood & sperm) are exempted....

Thanks, AM. The information was forwarded to eBay.