Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

CAIRO —  The poverty of Cairo's slums forced a young couple to sell nearly everything they had. When that wasn't enough, each of them sold a kidney.

Many of those looking for kidneys are Saudis paying around $16,000 for a black market transplant, experts say. The donors are plucked from Egypt's poor, often misled about the risks and abandoned after surgery with no follow-up care, said Amr Mostafa, a field researcher for the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions, a Washington-based advocacy group that helps donors.

The desperate search for organs has intensified around the world, with kidneys in highest demand due to increases in kidney disease. The 66,000 kidney transplants worldwide in 2005 met only 10 percent of the estimated need...

Organ trade is also big business — another reason for resistance to change.

"To some extent — and this is not just specific to Egypt — there are vested interests, there is money to be made," said Dr. Gabriel Danovitch, a transplant specialist at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine who has been part of efforts to stop the problem.