The government of the state of Queensland in Australia said it sold "spare" cadaver livers for transplantation to foreigners for $180,000 per operation in the 1990s when organ availability was high.

Health Minister Wendy Edmond said the transplants took place at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, and that most of the foreign recipients who paid for liver transplants were Japanese.

"There were actually spare livers for transplantation" at that time, she said in response to a question posed in the state parliament.

Edmond said "there are now only a small number on occasions when a liver donor is available for transplantation into a non-national
patient."

She said non-Australians seeking liver transplants had to meet the same medical criteria as Australians, namely being "expected to live
less than one year without a transplant." Edmond added that "Australian nationals have absolute priority in organ allocation, which overrides all medical indications."

Officials subsequently reported that 711 liver transplants had been performed in Queensland since 1985 -- with 134 livers going to Japanese, 109 to New Zealandders, and a small number to people from other countries.

Several other Australian states also reported performing a handful of transplants on foreign patients.