Key Ethical Issues Pertaining to Medical Tourism Industry

Medical tourism involves travelling abroad to seek medical treatments, such as surgery or organ transplantation. Most commonly, patients do so for cosmetic treatment or services such as surrogacy, which is not covered by health insurance in their own country. Second, the estimated cost of treatment is 10–20% of what they would pay in their native country. A long waiting list for organ transplant may force the recipients to knock other doors and, thus, seek transplantation in countries where illegal and unauthorised donors are easily available to sell their body organs in order to combat poverty. This results in developing countries actively marketing themselves as hot destinations for medical tourists with no restrictions and at an affordable cost. However, medical tourism raises a range of difficult ethical issues that need to be addressed. The first and the foremost challenge is assuring the quality of healthcare, then, planning of continuity of care on returning and regulations to fix the responsibility in delivery of medical care by all the stakeholders. The most challenging ethical concerns for medical tourism are the impact on the host country, as the economically less-developed countries are already facing a ‘brain drain’ of the professionals and a poor healthcare infrastructure. Regarding transplantation, there is sufficient evidence to firmly believe that organs are sold and, at times, taken by force, from the poor and the underprivileged. Surrogacy is another such issue. With rapid globalisation, medical tourism will expand. The question is whether medical tourism is ethically defensible, and if it is not, whether any reform and regulation can make it ethical. This question keeps on haunting and must be dealt with sincerity.