Organ Trafficking

Organ Trafficking refers to various criminal activities:

• Trading or selling human organs, tissues, or other body parts

• Surgically removing organs from victims (living or deceased ) without the free, specific consent.

• Illegal organ harvesting

The demand for transplant organs nowadays is extremely high due to the waiting lists of organs being so long (e.g. Canada’s waiting list for kidneys is 4 years long) and relatively low rates of law enforcement. [1]

The “donors” – which refers to the victims exploited for their organs – are mostly part of vulnerable communities, such as the unemployed, migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees or from developing countries.

Being a victim of other forms of human trafficking also heightens the risk of organ harvesting.

The Global Financial Integrity (GFI) estimates that around 10% of all organ transplants are done via trafficked organs. Some hospitals, in the U.S. and other countries, even push the black organ market. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 10,000 kidneys are traded on the black market each year. Many hospitals do not inquire very deeply into the source of the organs they transplant, because these types of operations can be highly lucrative and complex. The demand for organ transplants is additionally another factor as to why hospitals tend to not look that deeply into where the organs came from. When the organ is present, it is used.

For years now criminals have used this problem to exploit healthy victims, sell their organs and make, according to the GFI, annually between 840 million and 1.7 billion dollars. Even though organ trafficking is illegal in most countries (Iran is the only country where citizens can buy and sell an organ legally), organ trafficking is still everywhere. It is hidden in plain sight.

Transplant tourism feeds the demand for organ trafficking additionally. Transplant tourists travel to other destinations and countries to obtain readily accessible organs for transplantations.

In the November 2008 issue of CJASN [3], Jagbir Gill stated that that year 33 patients underwent kidney transplantation elsewhere and then returned to the United States for patient aftercare. Many people from developed countries, such as the U.S., travel to other countries to get transplant organs more quickly and then return to their origin country.