Organ Trafficking

The trafficking of human organs, tissues and other parts of the body for the purpose of transplantation is known as organ trafficking. The global demand of healthy human organs for transplantation is rising and the supply is comparatively quite low. And when the supply doesn’t meet the demand people turn to criminal and illegal means.

Organs like kidney, lungs, heart, pancreas are removed with the donors will or forcefully for the purpose of transplantation. All the organs are not valued equally as the organ price depends on how prone it is to failure and how easily it can be transplanted. The value of organ also depends on the demand and supply factor, for e.g. the supply of kidneys is high because people are convinced easily to sell their kidneys as one can survive with one kidney.

People off course meet their demand through black market (Red market, the term coined by Scott Carney to describe the commercial transactions of human body parts) and are ready to pay higher amount for the illegal transplants. The victims of the organ trafficking market are hardly paid 5% to 10% of the total that the sellers of the organs profit from the wealthier buyers from foreign countries like US and Japan. While in other cases human trafficking victims are forced to give away the organs and are not paid at all.

Organ trafficking is also about finding the right match, this doesn’t just means finding the donor with the same blood group, but finding the donors mostly of the same age and sizes as the recipient. This has up surged the crime of child trafficking. The innocent children become the victims of such a terrifying trade which is the ugliest fact.

The term transplant tourism refers to the trade of a transplant organ abroad that also includes access to an organ while avoiding the rules and laws of any country involved. The term ‘transplant tourism’ refers to the commercialism that relates to the illegal trade of organs however all the medical tourism is not illegal. Transplant tourism is a major concern as it involves the transfer of organs in the same direction depleting the regions from where the organs are supplied.

The supply either occurs from south to north, from developing to developed countries and the likes. The demand for organs in the developed countries is rising much faster than the supply of organs available nationally. The organs are thus purchased from the trade markets of developing countries to meet the demand and the criminal groups in developing countries supply organs for higher profits. People also travel to other countries for organ transplantation or in some cases the victims have to travel abroad for organ transplant.

Organ trafficking is the global issue that needs to be prevented. The issue of organ trafficking is debated by a wide range of scholars. The debates have resulted in many solutions focusing on the demand of organs and organ trafficking issue. As a result, increased governmental regulations, sanctions against organ trafficking and firm implementation of laws have been put in place. However, we still have a long way to go.