The e-mail you received is indeed scary, but the story it contains is simply an urban legend that has been told and retold, in various forms and settings, since at least 1991. As I will explain in the subsequent paragraphs, the story is not, and cannot be, true.

When this yarn started to circulate, the National Kidney Foundation (of the US) has asked anybody who had his/her kidney illegally removed to get in touch with them. To date, no one has contacted the organization.

Why has this story started in the first place? Probably because a lot of people need kidney transplants, yet very few donors are available.

The kidneys are a pair of organs whose main function is to maintain the normal composition and volume of body fluids by removing unwanted waste and extra fluid from the body. This unwanted waste and extra fluid is excreted in the form of urine.

In people with chronic renal disease, the kidneys undergo slow but progressive irreversible damage such that over a period of years they are no longer able to perform their function at all and the person develops chronic renal failure or end-stage kidney disease.

Kidney transplantation is one of two treatment alternatives (the other one is dialysis) for people with end-stage kidney disease. This procedure involves surgically harvesting a kidney from a healthy living or just recently dead (i.e., minutes after death) individual and transplanting the kidney to a patient with end-stage kidney disease.

The number of people with endstage kidney disease is staggering. It is estimated that more than 1.2 million people worldwide suffer from the condition. The list of people waiting for a suitable donor is a long one. It is thus conceivable that many rich patients with end-stage kidney disease are willing to pay a fortune for a kidney, an opportunity that criminal syndicates simply can’t let pass.

There are, however, compelling reasons why kidneys can’t be stolen in the manner described in the e-mail you received: Firstly, removing a kidney for purposes of transplanting it to another person is technically a very complicated operation that that needs a whole surgical team and numerous machines (anesthesia, monitors, etc.), instruments and other consumables. Furthermore, the procedure has to be performed in a sterile environment. It is tough to do the procedure successfully in an operating room and next to impossible in a hotel room.

Secondly, if you have stolen kidneys, to whom will you sell the kidneys? No reputable hospital or health facility anywhere in the world pays for human organs. Besides, a kidney can be donated only to a recipient who matches the donor’s blood and tissues.

The blood and tissues of a kidney donor and recipient should match. Otherwise, the donated kidney will be rejected by the recipient’s body. Even among siblings, the chance of a perfect match is just one in four. From a non-blood related donor, the odds that there will be a perfect match between donor and recipient are very low.

Stories about kidneys being stolen are simply not true, but those involving kidneys being sold (by Filipinos to rich foreigners, for example) are occasionally true. In the Philippines, as far as I know, there is currently no law that either allows or prohibits the practice of selling organs, but doctors consider this practice unethical.

Nevertheless, buying and selling of kidneys probably occur in this country as a private deal between the donor and the recipient who pass the donor out as a "distant cousin."