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Iran's lucrative kidney market

Home to the world's only legalized kidney market, Iran is seeing a boom in the kidney trade.

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Iranian patients receive treatment at the dialysis ward in the Helal Iran Clinic on March 11, 2015, a day ahead of the World Kidney Day, in Tehran. — GETTY IMAGES/Behrouz Mehri

TEHRAN, Iran — The walls of the Hasheminejad Specialist Hospital just off Tehran’s Vanak Square is covered with notices that serve as a market for an uncommon item: human kidneys.

The notices include details of sellers such as blood type, age and phone numbers. When Al-Monitor’s correspondent paid a visit, these details were expressed in sentences such as “healthy woman, 22, B+, 0927***9459” or “liver and kidney, negotiable price.”

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