Romanian Clinics Probe Prompts Organ Trade Row

A Romanian Ministry of Health investigation that revealed that four transplant clinics did not have adequate equipment for such surgery - and that the country's only lung transplant centre got its license based on disputable documentation - has raised questions about transplants and triggered accusations about organ harvesting.

The report stated that the four main centres were unfit to perform transplant surgeries and raised issues over the licence for operation of the country's only lung transplant centre, St Mary's Hospital.

Narcis Copca, manager of St Mary's Hospital, and Gabriela Firea, the Mayor of Bucharest, under whose auspices St Mary's Hospital operates, responded by accusing Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu of encouraging organ trafficking.

Ministry of Health Findings

The Ministry of Health published a report on Wednesday saying four Romanian hospitals authorized to perform transplants were not fit to perform this type of surgery and could be putting patients' lives in danger. The country's only lung transplant center, St Mary's Hospital, in Bucharest might have been authorized due to political pressure, it added.

Vlad Voiculescu, Health Minister, said on Wednesday that hospitals authorized to harvest organs for transplants in four cities "don't meet the minimum necessary criteria to harvest organs," did not have the equipment to fully determine if the donor was indeed brain-dead, and there were suspicions about the spendingof public money at the facilities.

The case that sparked the most controversy was the lung transplant centre in Bucharest, which received its authorization at the beginning of 2016. According to ministry findings, the person who signed the papers which certified that the hospital...