The organ donation ethics committee will hold an urgent meeting next week to determine how to handle over 20 potential kidney donors who came forward following an advert offering financial compensation.
The committee will look into the legal and ethical implications of allowing any of the donors to go ahead and give up a kidney, a Health Ministry spokesman said.
The donors came forward after Sarah Borg posted an advert on Malta Park, an online trading site, asking for a kidney for 30-year-old Chris Bartolo – the father of her son Zac, 10.
In the advert she offered €5,000 to the donor and has since insisted that the money was never intended to buy a kidney. The money would cover medical and other expenses incurred by the donor who would have to stop working for about six weeks. Her actions were not illegal as there is no legislation in place regulating the matter.
After the media picked up the story, over 20 people contacted Ms Borg to donate their kidney.
Ms Borg has been taking their personal details and passing them
on to Mater Dei Hospital to set appointments so they can start compat-ibility testing.
Ms Borg and Mr Bartolo have been encouraging donors to donate their kidney to other patients on the transplant list.
When contacted yesterday Ms Borg said she was worried as the hospital had not set any appointments yet.
“Unfortunately, I have not managed to make this first step happen and start the tests... This is not just for Chris. There are other patients who can benefit,” she said.
She does not know what to tell the potential donors who keep asking her when they should go to hospital for tests. She was informed that the ethics committee would be meeting, before the tests begin, and hopes it will not take forever.
A ministry spokesman said the committee – made up of legal, ethical and medical experts – convened each time a person offered to donate a kidney.
The aim was to ensure that the donation was genuine, spurred by altruism and there was no form of coercion.
Following the advert the committee will meet urgently to determine whether to process the applications. Once that is decided they will tackle each case individually.
The spokesman explained that kidney donation was a serious matter and the committee had to make sure a person was ready and fully willing to part with their organ.
Alfred Debattista, president of the Transplant Support Group, said he believed it was unethical to offer any form of remuneration in exchange for an organ.
However, the group hopes to use the awareness raised by Mr Bartolo’s case “so that all those who are ready to donate a kidney to the present patient will... also be ready to volunteer as donors to some other renal unit patient on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.”