Selling Kidney Does Not Benefit Seller: JAMA Study Raises Doubts About Value of Using Financial Incentives to Increase Supply of Organs for Transplantation.

Byline: Case Western Reserve University

CLEVELAND, Oct. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Individuals who sell a kidney do not receive a long-term economic benefit from the sale and may have a worsening of their health, according to a new study in the Oct. 2, 2002 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The investigation involved 305 individuals in southern India who had sold a kidney an average of six years earlier for about $1000 apiece (about twice their annual family income). The study compared the sellers' current economic and health status with their economic and health status before they sold a kidney. The income of the sellers declined by …