Shanghai's two hospitals best-known for performing kidney transplants are suffering an epidemic of unwanted advertising by would-be kidney sellers.

One is Shanghai No. 1 People's Hospital and the other is Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, with advertisements for "kidney selling" visible almost everywhere in the hospital buildings, according to a report in the Shanghai Morning Post.

In the kidney ward on the sixth floor of Shanghai No. 1 People's Hospital, nurses complain about having to continually scrape "kidney selling and kidney wanted" advertisements off the walls..

A director of the hospital's administrative office, surnamed Pu, said the hospital had been receiving an increasing number of calls about selling kidneys over the past decade.

A staff member from Changzheng Hospital said a man from Sichuan Province had come to the hospital to sell his kidney and had asked 200,000 yuan (US$24,200) for it. He said he would spend the money on treating his brother's kidney disease and on tuition.

Zhu Qinsheng (not his real name) had also wanted 200,000 yuan for his kidney. He pasted advertisements in toilets in the two hospitals and when no one answered, he lowered the price to 120,000 yuan (US$14,510).

Wang Kangliang (not his real name), 45, is another kidney seller. "Generally speaking, your body needs only one kidney so I think I can sell the other one," he said. "I believe it won't harm my health."

Wang said that although he knew doctors would only transplant kidneys taken from close relatives into a patient, he hadn't thought too much about that detail.

"We can do it in the name of the patient's relative only if we get a false certificate from the patient's family," Zhu said.

Zhu said he had a debt of 90,000 yuan (US$10,880) after his farm went into bankruptcy in 2002. He read a story about a foreign man who gave one of his kidneys to save the life of his daughter. He thought that may be a way to solve his money problems. After putting up an advertisement in the hospital he went home to wait for a call but no one ever contacted him.

Staff at the hospitals said the main source of kidneys for transplant operations was from dead bodies and was able to meet demand.

Official statistics show that every year there are more than 3,000 kidney transplant operations in the country. However, it is also said that more than 500,000 people need to find a healthy kidney so that there may be a serious shortage of kidneys available for transplants.

Chen Zhonghua, director of Transplanting Operation Research Center of Tongji Hospital in Wuhan said that in Western countries kidneys needed for transplant operations came mainly from relatives of the patient.

In Japan, kidneys donated by relatives accounted for 70 percent of all transplant operations. But only about 2 percent of patients in China and 1 percent in Shanghai have received kidneys donated by their families.

According to Chinese law, trading in human organs is banned although organ donation among relatives is permitted. This has left the door open for illegal trafficking in living human organs, experts said.

Blood money

In a similar case, the Yangpu District Court heard the first case of an illegal blood donation in Shanghai, which had been organized over the Internet, on January 5, the Shanghai Youth Daily reported.

In less than two years, the five defendants organized over 100 people to donate blood for enterprises who hadn't completed their quota of voluntary blood donations. They made over 100,000 yuan (US$12,100) in profit from those receiving their "help".

Last April, the defendant Meng Guangtai contacted Lin who was in charge of blood donation at a local hotel. Meng said he would help him to complete the donation task, but he needed some money in return.

After discussion, Meng fulfilled the quota for the hotel. Another defendant Zheng Jianlong found six blood donors over the Internet.

On April 8, six "donors" went to the Shanghai Blood Center and donated 400ml per capita in the name of hotel staff. The hotel then paid Meng 12,000 yuan (US$1,450).

In May 2003, the police bureau in Yangpu District received a report that someone had placed a blood donation advertisement in an online chat room. The payment was to be 800 yuan (US$97) per 400ml.

After investigation, the police arrested the illegal group on may 12 while they were operating a business in a blood center in Pudong.

Most of the donors were middle-school students addicted to online games or entertainment. Short of money, they had applied to sell their blood.

Xiao Huang (an alias), aged 20, said his pocket money did not cover his game playing in an Internet bar. When he found the ad on the website offering 800 yuan for his blood, he applied immediately, even though he felt a little frightened and he knew it was illegal. But he made the decision because this sum of money was sufficient to support his play online for two months.

(Shanghai Star January 15, 2004)