Dar es Salaam. The world has long debated whether or not to legalise the sale of human organs like kidneys for medical purposes. But Tanzanians do not have to think too hard about it.
They are free to sell their kidneys since there is no policy guiding transplants in the country and no one would interfere where the donor was willing, says Minister for Health and Social Welfare Seif Rashid.
"It is none of our business in the ministry whether a healthy kidney is sold or taken from one person and surgically placed in someone with kidney failure," said Dr Rashid. "Not even whether it is from a live or deceased donor.''
The newly appointed minister added, though, that there were plans to invest in transplant treatment in Tanzania so patients do not have to go overseas.
The Citizen wanted to establish whether there is any law that regulates the sale or donation of organs for medical use in Tanzania following a report published by the Wall Street Journal that called for the legalisation of kidney-for-cash deals in order to save millions of patients who have been waiting for a transplant for years.
When 56-year-old Jumanne Dologwe was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2012, he was told he would need artificial kidneys for the rest of his life. The treatment would cost him Sh1.5million every week treatment unless a Good Samaritan volunteered to give him a kidney donation.
Mr Dologwe is one of the lucky few. He got a kidney donation from a relative last year and, with government sponsorship, he had one of his kidneys replaced at India's Apollo Hospital.
Thirty five-year-old Joyce is not so lucky. The resident of Mbezi beach in Dar es Salaam has been on the waiting list for a transplant for 18 months after she suffered kidney failure. No one has volunteered yet.
According to statistics provided by the National Kidney Foundation when Tanzania was marking last year's World Kidney Day in Arusha, 5.85 million people are estimated to have kidney disease. Of these, about 65.3 per cent were in the late stages of the disease.
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda revealed that three out of every 1,000 patients admitted to local hospitals suffer kidney failure and announced that Tanzania would start performing transplants by 2020. Only 100 patients with kidney disease can afford dialysis. There are nearly half a million sick people in the country who need the service but cannot get it.
Cash for kidneys: Is it immoral?
With the acute shortage of kidneys for transplant in United States and around the globe, the Wall Street Journal this week published a report pointing out that finding a way to boost the supply of organs would reduce waiting times and death-and also greatly ease the suffering that many ill individuals endure as they hope for a transplant.
