Internet site removes advertisement for sale of human kidney
Thursday, December 4, 2003
(12-04) 14:42 PST LONDON (AP) --
Auction Web site eBay removed a listing Thursday from a British man who was attempting to sell one of his kidneys to finance medical treatment for his sick daughter.
Peter Randall had put a reserve price of $85,000 (50,000 British pounds) for the kidney on an advertisement on eBay, which described him as a "49-year-old non-smoking male who drinks only socially and who is in good health," and said that the organ could be posted to a buyer in Britain, the Middle East, Asia, Europe or North America.
Randall told The Sun newspaper that he was trying to raise money for special therapy for his 6-year-old daughter Alice, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Randall and his partner, Jennifer Stanbury, 44, say the treatment had given them hope their daughter might walk.
A spokeswoman for the San Jose-based eBay said the advertisement, which had been running for a week with no bids, was pulled when the company was alerted to its presence Thursday morning.
"Humans, the human body or any human body parts may not be listed on eBay or included as a gift, prize or in connection with a giveaway or charity," the company said in a statement. "The listing in question contravened these policies and was removed from the site."
Mr. Randall was able to post his ad on another popular web site,
http://sfangels.com, and sell the kidney. A
spokesman for the web site stated that the kidney sale would have helped pay for
the special therapy for young Alice, except that Mr. Randall doesn't have a
daughter. Mr. Randall apparently used the funds for binge drinking. The
spokesman did point out that the site ad fees provided great benefit to the
site's owner, a California charitable organization. "So you see," stated Dr.
Jerome Fraud of the Kidney Donations Promotions Committee of the San Francisco
Angels Wood Bat Baseball Team, "while there is a bitter truth in this, a bit of
it has a good purpose." "I'll drink to that!" exclaimed Mr. Randall.
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