In 1954, the world’s first successful kidney transplant between two live people took place. 30 years later, kidney transplantation was now common and acceptably safe, and in 1984, the sale of organs was banned through the National Organ Transplant Act, meaning any organ used may only be through donation. Under this act, however, only one person has ever be prosecuted for the brokering illegal organs. In the years since, illegal organ trafficking has sprung up in India, China, the US, Brazil, and South Africa with little to no real evidence of an end to the injustice it causes.
The demand for kidneys is generated largely in the US. As of January 2016, 100,791 people are on a waiting list for a life-saving kidney in America. Over 3,000 people are added to the waiting list each month and 13 people die each day while on hold for an organ transplant ("The National Kidney"). There is massive demand for kidneys in the US, and while certain family members of the sick are willing to donate theirs to save a life, there aren’t enough willing to give their kidney. Parents of a child who is dying of a kidney-caused issue become desperate enough to consider resorting to illegal solutions. It is this extreme imbalance in the supply and demand of donated kidneys that generates the black market organ trade.
In the late 1980s, transplant doctors in the Persian Gulf noticed that their patients were leaving for India and returning with transplanted organs. This was the first case of transplant
There are a lot of people in this world that are going through organ failure. The National Kidney Foundation even found, “Every fourteen minutes someone is added to the kidney transplant list”. Statistically speaking, that is a great deal of people in need of a vital organ. The author Joanna MacKay talks about the need for organ donations in her article “Organ Sales Will Save Lives”. MacKay disputes her case briefly when stating her thesis in the first paragraph. She gives the audience her opinion on how the selling of organs should be built to become legal. Throughout the text she touches on the black market selling of kidneys. She also incorporates how other third world countries have allowed this practice of organ sales. The article includes her insight on what would happen if organ sales would be legalized and how it would be regulated.
“Illegal trade in kidneys has risen to such a level that an estimated 10,000 black market operation involving purchased human organs now take place annually or more than one an hour” (The Guardian, 2012). People that are in the need of an organ and willing to participate in illegal activities will either send a broker or go directly to another country where people are lacking in the knowledge of the situation or have an extreme disability and buy an organ rom that individual. In most cases a broker will promise the seller a great amount of money, but in the end they will only receive a fraction of the money that was promised and for some they receive no money. If a broker cannot buy an organ they will steal one. “However, when the organ, like many other valuables that cannot be bought, it is stolen resulting in flagrant violation of human rights” (U.N.O.D.C, 2000). It is currently illegal to buy or sell human organ in the United States and many other countries. People involved with the operation of human trafficking will be charged with a trafficking offence. “For a trafficking offence to be established must be evidence of an illegal act (recruitment) followed by an illegal means (coercion) for the purpose of exploitation (organ harvesting), one in ten organ transplants are illegal” (U.N.O.D.C, 2000). Illegal sales of organs are increasing the rate of criminal
Thousands of people in the United States are dying each year because of a failed kidney, and have no chance to receive one. In “Organ Sales Will Save Lives” by MIT student, Joanna MacKay argues against banning the sale of organs, but instead recommends legalizing and regulating the trade of human organs in order to try and save people’s lives. MacKay reports that in America alone, approximately 350,000 people struggle each year with kidney failure. Since there is no cure, and buying kidneys is currently illegal, this leads the person to search for other options that usually result in purchasing organs on the black market. MacKay states that a black market purchase allows the recipient to buy a fresh, healthy organ from a living donor without the agonizing process of waiting on a list (157-158). MacKay believes that both the recipient and donor would benefit in the legalization and regulation process and if this comes to pass, more organs would be made available for transplant and many people would get the chance to live another day.
Organ trafficking is one of the great issues that is faced by the society today. It is a practice of stealing people’s organ through surgery under the influence of drugs or from a dead person, and the organs are normally sold in black market such as China. South Africa, and Russia. WHO has estimated that one-fifth of the 70,000 kidneys that are transplanted every year come from the black market through a widespread organ-trafficking networks. In my opinion, organ trafficking has become an international trade due to several reasons.
Over the last few decades, the number of patients on organ waiting lists in the US has continued to soar way above the number of organ donor. In some cases, patients have died waiting for organs from donors. According to available statistics, more than 100,000 patients are in the US transplant list waiting for organ donors. On the other hand, only 20% of these patients are likely to receive a legitimate organ donor and the fate of the other 80% lies in the balance (Rattenni 20). This shortage in the life saving organ transplant has led to a surge in illegal human trafficking cartels and black market vendor ready to exploit the desperate situation of these patients. In some cases, there have been cases of living donor ready to sale their organs for cash rewards.
The demand for organ donors far exceeds the supply of available organs. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) … there are more than 77,000 people in the U.S. who are waiting to receive an organ (Organ Selling 1). The article goes on to say that the majority of those on the national organ transplant waiting list are in need of kidneys, an overwhelming 50,000 people. Although financial gain in the U.S and in most countries is illegal, by legalizing and structuring a scale for organ donor monetary payment, the shortage of available donors could be reduced. Legalizing this controversial issue will help with the projected forecast for a decrease in the number of people on the waiting list, the ethical concerns around benefitting from organ donation, and to include compensation for the organ donor.
Dying painfully in a hospital bed is not the way anyone wants to go. Unfortunately for many people, it is a reality. Thousands of people a year end up dying while waiting for an organ that could save their lives. While on the other side of the world, thousands of people die a year, but from infection when an organ is forcefully taken from them to sell on the black market. There are two sides of the organ donation list, and both can end in death. This paper will discuss the shortage of donated organs and the issues with the current donation system. It will also discuss the black market for transplant organs and possible solutions to viable organ shortage. The focus of this paper will be on transplant kidneys as they are the most desirable organ for buyers and sellers.
The introduction of organ donation to society has since been a groundbreaking medical discovery and life-saving procedure, portrayed in myths dating back to Ancient times, before the 16th century. Early performed procedures we’re primarily successful skin grafts and transplants among individuals in need. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that doctors had been documented performing experimental and risky transplants from animal organs to save human patients suffering from renal failure. Though successful, none of these patients lived more than a few days after the transplants. It wasn’t until December 23, 1954, that the first truly successful kidney transplant, from a living donor, was achieved. Dr. Joseph
In December of 1954, the first human organ transplant was performed in the United States between identical twin brothers. In the past sixty years, organ transplantation has become the gold standard in the treatment of organ failure from a number of underlying causes with dramatic improvements to recipients’ health and quality of life (Kaserman, 2007). From the first kidney transplant in 1954 to the late 1980’s, one of the biggest advancements was the use of cadaver organs. Organ rejection was the primary concern from the transplant team who knew that the use of cadaver organs posed higher risks of failure.
There are 112 thousand people on the organ transplant list and 22 people die every day because they cannot find a match ("Organ Donation Statistics", 2017). In 1984, under the National Organ Transplant Act, America outlawed the buying and selling of organs. If caught selling organs illegally, those involved shall be fined not more than $50,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both (Prohibition of Organ Purchases, 2011). With organizations like Planned Parenthood selling the body parts of aborted fetuses, the compensation of organs has been compared to prostitution. (Gebelhoff, 2015). If organ donors begin being compensated for their gifts of life, the Black Market organ trafficking will increase due to supply and demand of organs which in return creates a higher victim rate related to the black market. Offering money for organs can be viewed as an attempt to coerce economically disadvantaged Americans to participate in organ donation even though these groups of people have been shown to be less likely to be candidates, monetary incentives for organs could be characterized as exploitation (National Kidney Foundation, 2003). The Compensation of organ donation is unethical due to the acts by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, black market increases along with acts of cruelty towards unexpecting victims, and the increase in costs to perform the transplants.
The desperation that rose as a result of the human organ shortage crisis led to the creation of an entire new business in the black market: transplant tourism. A similar term, called medical tourism, is defined as “the travel of residents of one country to another country for treatment” (Cohen, 2013). Like medical tourism, transplant tourism involves traveling as well, but with the motive of purchasing organs for transplant (Cohen, 2013). It is currently illegal in all countries—besides Iran, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia—to exchange human organs for money. Yet this particular black market still happens to thrive in many destination countries due to the government’s failure to monitor the issue or the absence of resources to detect its general occurrence. The parties involved in this business consist of three different categories: sellers, recipients, and brokers. The majority of sellers come from the poorest parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. The recipients come from the more affluent countries like the Middle East, south Asia, Europe, and North America. The brokers are the people running this particular black market and they reside in the countries where the illegal transplants occur: Istanbul, Cesenau, Moldova, Tel Aviv, and Manila—just to name a few (Cohen,
It is an indisputable fact that under the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, there is a larger demand for organs than there is available supply. As a result, people in need of kidney or liver transplants die every year while waiting. Under the current system, the only way to receive an organ transplant is either by having a family member selflessly volunteer to donate theirs, or by being put on a waiting list to receive an organ from the recently deceased. To combat this lack of supply, some in need of transplants desperately turn to the black market, paying enormous sums of money for organs that were more than likely taken illegally. Others die waiting for a transplant that was never realistically going to happen in time. In essence, the gap between supply and demand for organs is causing both a loss in quantity and quality of lives. However, changing policy to allow payments to organ donors would drastically reduce this gap, therefore decreasing wait time for organs and saving lives. The crucial step that must be taken to save these lives is to repeal the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 which prohibits the sale of organs.
Every ten minutes a new person is added to the waiting list for organ transplants. With only three in one thousand people dying in a way that allows for organ donation, twenty-two people die each day waiting for a transplant. Almost all U.S. adults support organ donation, but less than half are actually signed up as organ donors (Organ Donation Statistics). Currently, the people desperate for organs or money turning to illegal hospitals and black-markets for buying and selling organs. Though the members of organ trafficking are rarely exposed and therefore the size of the problem is unknown, something has to be done for the people in need of organs now. The near future should hold a piece of health care technology that creates organs, combatting the unfortunate statistics of organ donations and the organized crime of trafficking organs.
The legalization of organ sales has been proposed as a solution to two distinct problems. The first is the problem of illegal organ trafficking and the second is the problem of inadequate supplies of organs available for transplants. Gregory (2011) outlined the case for legalizing organ sales by arguing that the current shortage of organs fuels a black market trade that benefits nobody except criminals. He further argues that such a move would add organs to the market, thereby saving the lives of those who would otherwise die without a transplant, while delivering fair value to the person donating the organ. There are a number of problems with the view that legalizing the organ trade is beneficial. Such a move would exacerbate negative health outcomes for the poor, strengthening inequality, but such a move would also violate any reasonable standard of ethics, by inherently placing a price on one's life and health. This paper will expand on these points and make the case that we should not allow people to pay for organs.
The delegate of Russia believes even though some nations like Russia are trying to get rid of organ trafficking, without the uncompromising effort of the other developed nations to ban importing trafficked organs within their own countries, it will be impossible to end this injustice. Developed countries must organize a system that would encourage an increase in legal organ donors, such as the opt-out system which has been successfully introduced in several countries, or reconsider and deregulate the present system on the basis of WHO guidelines. At the same time, laws must be organized to punish illegal trafficking groups in order to protect poor ‘donors’ from being lured into the organ trade.