Exposing the Red Market of Human Organ Trafficking

Organ trafficking is a type of dealing where organs of a poor person are sold to a wealthier buyer for the cause of implantation. Most of these dealings happen in the black market through traffickers who are willing to harvest a person’s body in order to make some top dollars. Each year billion dollars’ worth of human organs are trafficked to different countries for the intent of transplantation.

Organ Trafficking: Why Does It Occur?

Each year, more than 140,000 people are on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Daily hundreds of new patients are inducted in the waiting list. A new inductee has to wait for an average of three and a half years before he/she gets his/her turn for an organ transplant. Every day more than 25 people die due to shortage of available organs. In spite of all this, in almost all the countries around the world (except for Iran) buying and selling an organ is illegal and a punishable crime. Therefore, there is a HUGE demand for organs in the black market where a price of the organ varies from $300,000 to as low as $1,000. 

Why Is Organ Trading illegal?

Legalizing organ trade has been a huge point of discussion in the past. It hasn’t been done until yet because if organ trading were made legal then it would promote Killing and kidnapping of people for selling their organs. This would also increase the risk of selling contaminated organs that can adversely affect the patients’ health. In such circumstances poor people are duped by the traffickers to sell their organs for cheap and these organs are later re-sold by the traffickers in the western market for a 10 times higher price. And the greed for the money that comes through selling an organ has also led to certain extraordinary cases such as recently it was in news that 2 Chinese people were willing to sell their kidneys to buy an iPhone!

Victims of Organ Trafficking

Victims of organ trafficking are poor people, innocent people that are kidnapped by the traffickers and patients that are seeking treatment from a doctor only to find out that they have been duped by him for their organs. Though organ trafficking prevails in almost all countries of the world, but most of the victims come from the poor countries of Asia (India, Pakistan) and Europe (Moldova, Ukraine). Poverty-stricken people from these countries are lured by the traffickers to donate their organs to well-off patients from western and Arabian countries.  Generally an organ donor from a developing country gets around $5000 dollars, this money is sufficient enough for him to feed his family.

Organ Donation: Spain has the highest organ donation rate with an average of 35.3 donations per million people. 

Waiting List: As if for 2016 more than 140,000 people are on the waiting list for organ transplantation.

Victims: People from poor countries are victims of organ trafficking.

Organ prices: Depending on the demand, the price of the same organ varies in different countries.

Organ Trade: In Pakistan some victims are paid as low as $1000 for their kidney.

Center In Turkey: Organ trafficking center in Turkey, where Syrian soldiers are being cut for their organs.

Body Harvesting: Kidney, Liver and Pancreas are the most commonly harvested human organs.

Falun Gong Prosecution: In China, more than 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were executed for their organs. This was regarded as one of the biggest genocide in China.

Organ Donation: Live after death, donate your organs.

How to Prevent Organ Trafficking?

Over the years Organ Traffickers have become more sophisticated and organized. International organizations have not been able to tackle this problem properly. The government of each country should form laws to legalize organ supply and at the same time they should make sure that poor people are not discriminated or forced into donating their organs. Organ supply or donation should be done on the basis of kindness, humanity instead of money. Many celebrities around the world have pledged towards organ donation and even you could do your bit by registering for it.

Movies based on Organ Trafficking

Some of the interesting and heart-wrenching movies based on this topic.

• The Man From Nowhere (2010)

• Never Let Me Go (2010)

• Turistas (2006)

• Caged (2010)

• Train (2008)

Related Article