Ailing Florida Man Offers 99-Year Lease on His ‘Extra’ Kidney
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PORT ORANGE, Fla. — “Kidneys?” reads the newspaper ad. “I have 2 excellent ones! Long-term lease available.”
Bob Loturco, 60, disabled and barely surviving on a $550-a-month Social Security pension, wants to ease his retirement years by leasing for 99 years one of his kidneys to someone in need. Price negotiable.
“It’s my darn kidney,” Loturco said. The former boat builder and car salesman has emphysema and cannot work. But he is not dying, and believes one kidney will suit him just fine.
Loturco is trying to get around a law that prohibits the sale of organs by advertising his kidney for long-term lease. But Lisa Jacques of Florida’s Health Care Administration said, “Any kind of monetary compensation for an organ is illegal.”
When Loturco ran a similar ad in Fort Myers in December, he ran into a storm of protests from organ-donor groups.
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