Sue Rabbitt Roff said that paying live donors would encourage more to come forward and so shorten waiting lists, as three people currently die every day because they were unable to receive a transplant.

She claimed that it would not be "such a big step" from current systems, whereby medical research subjects are paid wages and workers who lose organs receive compensation, and would avoid the black market that exists in other countries.

Dr Rabbitt Roff, a research fellow in medical sociology at Dundee University, wrote in an comment piece published online at BMJ.com: "It's time to begin to explore how to pilot paid provision of live kidneys in the UK under strict rules of access and equity.