Jaunted

The Chinese acknowledgement is in response to years of suspicion that hospitals are conducting a lucrative and expanding trade in selling organs to foreigners who arrive in the country on tourist visas.

The number of Americans on the organ transplant list usually hovers around 100,000. While somewhere around 25,000 transplants are performed each year.  Yeah, we know, simple supply and demand, but damn transplant tourism seems rife with morale dilemmas.

Some transplant tourists are fairly open about their experience, like Eric De Leon, who blogged his transplant tale.

Eric De Leon of San Mateo, Calif., had nine tumors on his liver and was unresponsive to chemotherapy when his doctors concluded that his chances for survival were low, even with a new liver. He was removed from the U.S. transplant list as required by national eligibility rules.

He got a second mortgage on his house and went to Shanghai.

"Are we ashamed of what we did? No, we are not," his wife, Lori, said on their blog, Transplant Tales: China and Back. "We did what we needed to do, and we did everything legally."

Know more? Share, or comment below. This whole transplant tourism thing is leaving us with a ton of questions.

[Photo: bleucielgreentea]

Related Stories:
·   China acknowledges transplant tourism [Travelwirenews]
·   Organ Trade in China [fofg.org]
·   Medical Travel Coverage [Jaunted]