Narrator: This is Science Today. The recent formation of a new Organs Watch program by professors at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University Medical School, has brought the issue of global trafficking of human organs into the spotlight. John Roberts, chief of transplant services at the University of California, San Francisco, recently spoke about the issue of organ trafficking.

Roberts: In general, those in the Western countries are sort of abhorrent of the idea that you would pay somebody for organs. But on the other side of it, there are countries where the payment that somebody would receive for an organ transplant could take care of themselves and their families for ten years.

Narrator: The main problem is, there are not enough organs.

Roberts: And that pertains partially to this payment for organs. It also makes it so that we need to decide how best to allocate organs to those patients who are waiting.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.