Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

90 ● Medical Tourism in Developing CountriesSecond, one of the more notorious forms of medical tourism is what hascome to be called transplant tourism, namely organ and tissue transplantations.100 This occurs when patients travel to countries where they can purchaseorgans and thus bypass the queue in their home countries. Transplanttourism did not come to the attention of world organizations until reportsfrom China, India, and South Africa surfaced about the sale of organs,especially among the most vulnerable, the poor and uneducated, who weremost willing to sell their organs. The WHO recommendations are designedto harmonize global practices so as to control the practice.Third, there are regulations pertaining to trade in health services thatalso have a bearing on medical tourism. The 1994 General Agreement onTariffs and Trade (GATT) stipulated five multilateral trade agreements thathave implications for trade in health matters. 101 First, countries may banthe import of products in order to protect public health. In addition, countriesadhere to the following:1. TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) thatsets standards for the protection of intellectual property (and hasramifications for the importation of drugs);2. SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures) that affects national policyfor food safety;3. TBT (Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade) that deals with theproduction, labeling, packaging, and quality standards of pharmaceuticals,biological agents, and other consumer products; and4. GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) that deals with movementsof consumers across international borders in order to get or givehealth care, the movement of capital across boundaries in the form ofdirect foreign investment, as well as the newer areas of e-commerceand telehealth.TourismInternational agencies promote public sector coordination with the privatesector in LDCs. The UNWTO offers its support by fostering a businessfriendly environment that gives private investors the possibility for commerciallyviable tourism projects and public/private partnerships. The IMF,as part of its structural adjustment programs in LDCs, supports the creationof a liberal environment for the tourist industry (one that includes privatizationand foreign investment). 102International institutions also set behavioral norms for the industry. Theyseek to protect migrant workers and implement employment regulations.They also promote broad social inclusion in tourism projects. In this way,