Medical tourism is the worst type of tourism possible. And yet, people seeking inexpensive procedures or body parts they can’t afford at home, routinely ply the trade winds in search of foreign hospitals to help them out.
But where to go? Where is the best place to travel in order to scoop up that difficult-to-find kidney or a really cheap lung transplant?
Like any good souvenir picked up abroad, every country has its own special deals.
Wired Magazine recently published a handy little map detailing the going rates for kidneys, lungs, livers, pancreases, and hearts across the globe. Prospective shoppers, for example, can pick up a pancreas in Taiwan for $140,000. Or they can save $30,000 by visiting mainland China. Chinese organs, however, are often provided by executed criminals who have no say in the matter. I suppose that’s still better than stealing it from some drugged backpacker in Nicaragua.