T

he 2009 Health Law clearly bans the sale of human organs for any reason. Those found guilty of the practice can be sentenced to a maximum 10 years behind bars and a fine of Rp 1 billion (US$72.6 million). Culprits can also face charges of human trafficking.

However, as with any type of coveted contraband, heavy punishment has not eradicated the black market for human organs, given the high demand for donations.

Police have arrested three men in Bandung on charges of harvesting and selling kidneys to hospitals and one in Bengkulu for attempting to sell his kidney.

The first three men also allegedly swindled donors by promising them a few hundred million for each kidney, but giving them only 70 million rupiah each after they underwent the surgery. Police said donors were unaware that medical treatment was needed for three months after donating a kidney, and that the '€œdown payment'€ would barely cover it.

Health Minister Nila Djuwita Anfasa Moeloek said she had formed a special team to check on donors and police were investigating three hospitals in Bandung and Jakarta. But we are left, of course, with the thriving black market, with people on social media still offering kidneys or bone marrow.

Some come with price tags of a few hundred million to Rp 900 million while others simply cite financial needs, such as '€œI need money fast to pay debts.'€ Sellers state their age and blood type and claim to be healthy and drug-free.

Minister Nila said that some 150,000 kidneys were currently needed for people with chronic kidney failure.

The government needs to look at advanced countries where the organ trade is widespread despite being illegal, as well as in Iran, where its government regulates the trade in organs, paying part of the price to screened sellers, with recipients and charities paying the rest of the funds.

Foreign experts study the Iranian model to seek solutions to the long waiting list for organs from living or recently deceased donors, resulting in what many see as preventable deaths, contributed to by the lack of legal compensation for donors. Ethical questions abound; religious figures say organs should be donated, not sold. Worries about regulating the trade also center on fears that focusing on transactions would eventually sidestep the necessary strict screening of donors before and after transplants.

However, such regulation would at least reduce the criminal human organ brokers and traffickers.

Organ sellers who seem to live healthy with fewer financial worries will surely attract others to consider doing the same '€” the neighbors of one man arrested in Bandung claimed to have sold a kidney each and said that dozens of others had done the same, reports said.

The prospect of people lining up to sell kidneys, livers and other organs is certainly embarrassing to any government that claims to be doing its best to alleviate poverty.

Even with legal donations, donors'€™ health is reportedly often neglected. But merely going after organ brokers and harvesters has not stopped the trade, as trading one'€™s kidney to deal with mounting debts is just a click away.