Singaporeans desperate for Chinese kidneys

SINGAPORE: Singaporean kidney patients are going to China for transplants despite fears of infection and reports that replacement organs may have come from executed convicts, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

"It doesn't matter to me where they got it. I don't know and I didn't ask," Ronnie Chua, a 43-year-old maintenance officer who said he spent $25,000 for a successful transplant in Tianjin.

Chua, who was photographed showing a surgical scar above the waist, would have spent a comparable amount for a transplant in a top Singaporean hospital, but the average waiting time for a suitable donor organ here is seven years. In China, doctors found a suitable donor organ after Chua waited only two weeks, and he went back to work in Singapore 13 days after the operation, the report said.

Health ministry figures up to September showed that 574 patients were waiting for a kidney transplant in Singapore. In 2005, 66 Singaporeans underwent transplants locally, while 32 went to China. Chua said the testimonials of three other Singaporeans who underwent kidney transplants in China, including a 69-year-old woman, convinced him to make plans for an operation in this year.