Kidney donors can choose transplant patients on controversial website

A CONTROVERSIAL website that offers patients waiting for kidney transplants the chance to plead for donors has been launched in the UK.

The website’s creators believe it will persuade more people to donate because they will get to choose who receives their organ.

The United States-based site, MatchingDonors, was launched across the UK yesterday and revealed it already had several people signed up for the service.

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The charity, which is based in Boston, claims it has already matched about 250 strangers in the US and hopes to prove as successful in the UK.

Currently, the NHS donor scheme does not allow donors to select who receives their organs but some experts argue the anonymous nature of the scheme has led to fewer than 120 people donating to strangers, called altruistic donation.

It is illegal, both in the UK and US, for people to buy or sell

organs but not to give their

kidney away for free.

MatchingDonors chief executive Paul Dooley said medical experts backed the website for

offering “the gift of life”.

The charity’s website offers information to potential donors from doctors who say most people can donate a kidney and continue to live a normal life.

Mr Dooley said: “The old system of ‘Give us your organ, we’ll decide where it goes’ no longer works. We have the ability to take our system to the UK and save their lives.”

He also claimed the scheme prevents people from turning to the black market where they can “buy” a donor.

The website enables patients to upload videos of themselves where they can talk about their personal experience and health issues, and give reasons why they should receive a transplant.

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It also allows potential donors and patients to message each other to find out more about one another.

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA), the UK’s transplant watchdog, said it would be monitoring the website to see how it operates and look into any legal implications that may arise.

The watchdog has already revealed the website has the ability to charge patients up to £375 just to sign up to appear on the site – but at the same time the website makes it clear it is illegal to offer or receive payment for organs.

Allan Marriott-Smith, director of strategy and quality at the HTA, said: “We have seen an increase in the use of social networking websites which can put potential donors in contact with people who need an organ transplant.

“Once we have more information, we can advise members of the public considering the possibility of arranging a donation through this route.”

However, he warned that the principle of organ donations, both from living and deceased people, being a freely given gift, was “the basis of the law in this area”.

Sally Johnson, director of Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “We have an allocation system where those in most need and benefit get it – not because they have the saddest story.”

About 750 people in Scotland are waiting for a kidney transplant, latest figures show.

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