Human Trafficking for the Purpose of Organ Removal (THB/OR) is a form of human trafficking in which an individual illegally gives an organ to a recepient with coordination of a trafficker. Traffickers seek out adults in severe poverty with little to no economic options. They take advantage of their vulnerability and offer money in exchange for an organ, usually a kidney. Although the donor often knows the basics of the exchange, the trafficker leaves out vital information. For example, donors will likely have long term health issues after donation, especially because they rarely have access to proper health care after the surgery. Traffickers also may exploit donors by not paying the full amount originally promised or manipulating them in some other way. Like all types of human trafficking, THB/OR results in severe physical and emotional damage for the exploited individual involved.

The main driver of THB/OR is a lack of legal organs available for transplantation. Each country has their own process for organ exchange which, combined with cultural and economic factors, dictates how long waiting times are for organs. Long waiting lists and strict criteria for donors and receivers results in more people willing to use other methods to receive this life saving procedure. On the other end, the individuals exploited in trafficking are often displaced and/or living in extreme poverty. Therefore, when political turmoil and economic volatility appear in a country, so do cases of trafficking.

This was a subject I never expected myself to learn about in college but I am very grateful I got the opportunity. It was very interesting to look at public health policy and medical systems from a European perspective and expand my perspective past just the United States. For example, we talked a lot about organ transplantation policy in Spain because it is the country with the most completed organ transplants per capita. This is because Spain has a piece of policy that is drastically different than the countries around it: hospitals use circulatory death as the legal definition of death (when a transplantation can start) rather than brain death. Brain death occurs soon after circulatory death, but the time between the two decreases the viability of the other organs in the body. This policy greatly increases the amount of organs that are healthy enough to be transplanted, but because brain death has been used as the standard in much of the world, it is controversial.

Conducting research resulted in surprising personal growth. As part of the project, we taught a full class about THB/OR to our peers in the course Human Trafficking and the Sex Trade. Putting THB/OR and our research into a clear and concise lesson was a new experience and taught me a lot about the logistics of formatting information in a digestible way for an outside audience, which is a huge part of public health education. Finally, I reflected a lot on the communities and individuals that are most impacted by public health policy, and often go unrecognized. I hope to continue to bring the context of the trafficking world into my future studies and career in public health.