IRANIANS OFFER ORGANS FOR SALE AS DEBT AND HARDSHIP DEEPEN

Tue 29 September 2026:

A growing underground market for kidneys and other body parts is emerging alongside official transplant channels, even as thousands of patients wait — and some die — for surgery.

Economic collapse, unpaid debts, and a collapsing currency are driving more Iranians to advertise their own organs online. What once appeared as scattered social-media posts has become a visible parallel market in which patients desperate for transplants meet people desperate for cash.

Brokers now operate between official compensation schemes and far higher informal prices. Some sellers explicitly target foreign buyers willing to pay in dollars. One young man advertising his kidney said he would deal only with “organ traders.”

Sellers commonly cite debt and daily living costs as their motive. Some also complain that advertised organ prices have not kept pace with inflation and the rial’s plunge.

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Waiting lists grow as donation rates fall

Iran’s Organ Donation Association said about 27,000 people were on transplant waiting lists in spring 2026. Kidney patients accounted for 70 to 80 percent of them. Vice president Omid Ghobadi said a patient on the list dies every two to three hours.

Ghobadi noted in May that Iran had long led Asia in organ donation. Rates have dropped sharply over the past two years, especially during wartime, because of shortages of medicines, equipment, and staff, as well as disruptions to air transport and communications.

A 2025 medical study put the pressure in stark numbers: some 32,000 Iranians are on dialysis, yet only about 2,500 kidney transplants are performed each year. Annual need is estimated at no fewer than 10,000 operations. About 60 percent of kidney transplants come from deceased donors; the rest come from living donors.

Official payments lag behind the black market

Iran runs a state compensation system for living kidney donors. Under the latest rules, the government payment — available only to those with valid insurance — is 110 million tomans ($500) outside Tehran and 133 million tomans ($605) in the capital, minus a 7 percent tax.

Those figures took effect last November, up from 80 million tomans ($364) in 2022. After tax, donors typically receive about 100 million tomans ($455) outside the capital and 120 million tomans ($545) in Tehran.

Official transactions are supervised by kidney-patient support associations so that recipient and donor do not bargain directly. A parallel market has grown beside that system, built on private deals, brokers, and online channels.

The dual track is not new. A study of kidney transplants in Mashhad between 2011 and 2018 found recipients already paying extra sums above the official rate. Researchers say inflation has eroded the real value of government compensation, encouraging side payments.

Asking prices soar into the billions of tomans

Advertised kidney prices have jumped. Last year, donors typically asked 350 million to 900 million tomans ($1,600–$4,100). By last September, listings ranged from 1.2 billion to 6 billion tomans ($5,500–$27,300). Those are asking prices; it is not clear how many deals closed at those levels.

Examples include a 48-year-old man in prison for unpaid debts who listed his kidney at 3 billion tomans ($13,600); a 29-year-old woman who repeatedly posts an “urgent sale, price negotiable” ad; and a 24-year-old from West Azerbaijan who said he needed money for his child’s medical care.

Another 42-year-old man offered his kidney — and one of his testicles — to clear heavy debts. He did not know testicular transplants are not performed in Iran. He priced his kidney at about 1.3 billion tomans ($5,900) and said he was open to negotiation.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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