The Mater Dei Hospital organ transplant ethics committee has decided it will not allow kidney donations to specific patients by strangers who come forward following an advert offering money.

The Live Organ Transplant Advisory Committee concluded that this would go against the principle of distributive justice. The donors, however, can contact the hospital to start the process to donate their kidney - that will go to whoever needs it most urgently.

More than 20 donors came forward after Sarah Borg posted an advert on Malta Park, an online trading site, asking for a kidney for her former partner, 30-year-old Chris Bartolo – the father of her son Zac, 10.

In the advert she offered €5,000 as compensation, which she later explained was meant to cover loss of earnings by the donor during the recovery period.

The committee said it was convinced that the responses to Ms Borg's appeal were genuine and well motivated.

"In the case of potential kidney donations that do not fall within the category of directed-donation (by a relative or friend who know the recipient)... the committee finds no objection for the screening process to go ahead...and the donated organ/s going into a pool from which any compatible prospective recipient may benefit, according to his/her needs, and this on the basis or the principle of distributive justice," the committee said.

The committee said that, in light of the present legal situation, it was against any form of financial inducement or advertising. This would lead to a situation where the most compelling stories and those who had the means to advertise their plight would get the organs, rather than those who were most in need.

Full story in The Times.