Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday lamented the shortage of organs for transplants but denounced any selling of organs as immoral.
"The problem of availability of organs for transplant, unfortunately, isn't theoretical but dramatically real," the pontiff said in a speech to participants of a Vatican-sponsored meeting on organ donations.
But any "buying and selling of organs ... would go against the meaning of donation" and would be "morally illicit," the pope said.
A few years before he was elected pontiff, Benedict said in an interview that he carries a card identifying him as an organ donor.