BMJ  2007;335:1117 (1 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39409.472072.DB

News

Israel is set to outlaw trafficking in human organs

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

Jerusalem

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A decade after Israel's health ministry first began preparing it, a bill that will make it a criminal offence to sell human organs for transplantation or to act as an intermediary in such transactions is due to be passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament. The bill, which prohibits trafficking in human organs in Israel and by Israeli residents abroad, was approved in committee for its final readings in the full assembly.

Traffickers—but not donors or recipients in illegal transactions—will get three years in prison or a fine equivalent to $50 000 (£24 000; {euro}34 000).

Legislators hope that the law will put an end to the organ sale scandals in which some Israelis have been involved. For various reasons 54% of Israelis of all religions refuse to allow organs of dead relatives to be donated; and organs are taken from or donated by fewer than 10 in every million residents . . . [Full text of this article]


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