Jobless Spaniards selling kidneys for cash

MADRID, May 11 (UPI) -- Hard economic times have prompted destitute Spaniards to offer their kidneys for sale to "transplant tourists," medical experts say.

Internet advertisements touting "kidney for sale" have been proliferating in recent months as Spain faces a 17 percent unemployment rate, The Times of London reported.

Such transactions are illegal in Europe, but that hasn't stopped a black market of unemployed residents offering their organs for sale, mainly because they are desperate for money. One man who posted such an ad, Alberto, is an unemployed construction worker in Valencia with two small children who says he can't pay his mortgage and is asking $227,000, The Times said.

"The bank is on my back," he said. "If I could think of some other way of raising the money, believe me, I would."

Rafael Matesanz, director of Spain's national transplant office, told the newspaper "transplant tourists" believe kidneys from Europe are healthier than those from the Third World, although such operations have to be performed outside Europe.