B.C. providing cash incentive for organ donation

[Guest guest]

B.C.

providing cash incentive for organ donation

Updated Sat.

Apr. 14 2007 10:04 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Thanks to a new pilot project in B.C., giving

the gift of life through organ donation will not only benefit organ recipients

but provide financial benefits for donors as well.

Since July 2006, B.C. has committed to

refunding up to $5,500 in expenses for every living donor.

Forty three donors have received financial incentives

in the province ranging from as little as $56 for a ferry trip from Vancouver

Island to $3,500 for a donation from a woman who flew to Vancouver from Prince

Rupert.

Five

months ago, Court s donated a kidney to his son and the province reimbursed

him $2,500 for lost wages and expenses. While

s maintains he would have done anything to help his son, the financial

incentives were a welcome form of support during a difficult time. " I think it's a very good

principle, " s told CTV News. " The fact

a lot of people are giving up their business, time away from work. They're stressed out anyway. "

With more

than 3,000 Canadians currently waiting for a kidney, provinces are desperate to

encourage donors to come forward. Mark

Nesbitt, a spokesperson for the Kidney Foundation of Canada, was the recipient

of a kidney from his brother. " Finance can be a real dissuasion for

someone wanting to donate a kidney, " Nesbitt told CTV News. He maintains if limited compensation will

encourage more people to donate, then he's all for it.

Ontario Health Minister erman announced on Tuesday that his

province is considering becoming the next province to pay people who

donate a kidney or a liver.

" It's

the living donations that we have to focus on,'' he said. " We

need to look hard at how we can support people to do that. British

Columbia is a model. They've

moved ahead and we need to take a good look at that, " erman

said. " It's an expensive

proposition but obviously it is the gift of life,'' he said. A focus on living donors would become party of

an existing program that allows people to consent to organ donation after they

die in an effort to find more organs for people on waiting lists.

Critics

of the plan are wary of mixing monetary gains and medicine. " Removing obstacles is absolutely fine,

but money as motivation for a donation is trouble, " one doctor told CTV

News. In some countries, organs are

going to the highest bidder. Cash strapped people in the Philippines

have been known to sell their organs for profit. Italian authorities are investigating claims

that underground clinics in Slovenia

are removing organs from illegal immigrants who are desperate to enter into Europe.

However, experts doubt that Canada

would develop such problems.

The

number of living donors is going up slowly but there were still fewer than 300

people who donated either part of a liver or a kidney last year.

With

a report from CTV's Jed Kahane

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