Alberta would consider paying for "medical tourism," a controversial way around long queues for medical procedures that sees patients go to other countries for surgeries, says a provincial spokesman.

A Calgary company finds hospitals in the developing world that will ? for a fee ? perform urgent or elective surgeries and other medical procedures, ranging from facelifts to hip replacements.

Aruna Thurairajan, the owner of Overseas Medical Services, says she has sent dozens of customers to Pakistan and India for the surgeries since the company started in 2003.

Sean Beardow, spokesman for Alberta Health and Wellness, says if an out-of-country procedure were medically necessary and unavailable in Alberta, the province would consider paying for it.

"We really have to consider all cases on their individual merits and circumstances," Beardow said.

Thurairajan says she can even arrange a kidney transplant from a live donor for about $32,000 US.

The practice has outraged some critics who say that buying organs from the poor is unethical.

"It is an exploitation of the individuals in the Third World," says Dr. Christopher Doig, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Calgary.

He also fears that paying for organ transplants could undermine the current donation system.

However, Thurairajan says the ethics of purchasing organs from people in the developing world is complicated.

"The degree of ethics is debatable when ... patient is in need of a kidney to save his life and give him at least a 10-year lifespan and there is a donor who lives in abject poverty and can not afford proper schooling or clothing or a roof above his head," she said.

Practice isn't queue jumping

Thurairajan has just returned from India, where she paid to have surgery on her foot. She decided to have the surgery done overseas after her doctor said she would have to wait more 18 months for the procedure in Alberta.

She says those kinds of delays are the reason she wants to help others get medical treatment in the developing world.

The practice isn't queue jumping, but rather a faster option that will save people from grief and trauma, Thurairajan says.