A retail magnate has become the first person in Singapore to be charged with buying organs. Tang Wee Sung was prepared to pay S$300,000 (US$222,000) for a kidney from an impoverished Indonesian posing as a relative. Mr Tang had severe diabetes and is on dialysis and apparently has only a five-year life expectancy without a transplant. Most Singaporeans in similar plights pay for kidneys in India or China, but organ trading is currently illegal there.

His prospective donor, Sulaiman Damanik, 26, had been out of work for months and is supporting aged parents. He was to have been paid S$23,700 (US$17,500). He was recruited by a man from the same village who had already sold his own kidney to a Singaporean woman. Both were sentenced to light jail terms and small fines.  

Singapore is striving to promote the lucrative medical tourism business and is determined not to become a hub for black market organ trading. The Singapore Medical Association is opposed to organ sales because of its potential for exploiting the poor. It called for “tremendous resources” to enforce the current ban.

On the other hand, the government is sending confusing messages about the issue. Health minister Khaw Boon Wan declared recently that “If [an organ transplant] is motivated by financial transactions, then we think it is definitely wrong, morally and legally.” However, with the Tang case getting blanket coverage in Singapore, he took a more favourable view. “I think we should not write off or reject the idea of selling organs. But I think we need to study it carefully,” he said.