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Conversations with Kidney Vendors in Pakistan: An Ethnographic Study
- Hastings Center Report
- The Hastings Center
- Volume 39, Number 3, May-June 2009
- pp. 29-44
- 10.1353/hcr.0.0136
- Article
- Additional Information
In theory, a commercial market for kidneys could increase the scarce supply of transplantable organs and give impoverished people a new way to lift themselves out of poverty. In-depth sociological work on those who opt to sell their kidneys reveals a different set of realities. Around the town of Sarghoda, Pakistan, the negative social and psychological ramifications of selling a kidney affect not only the vendors themselves, but also their families, communities, and even the country as a whole.