Organ Removal

I learned that organ removal, while uncommon, does exist in our modern world. The victims of these practices are often "killed or left for dead" according to the people at Fight Slavery Now. Many body parts are traded on the black market, but kidneys are the most common. The WHO estimates that over 7000 kidneys are obtained illegally each year. The people taking the kidneys have monetary incentive to do so. The demand for kidney transplants is fast outpacing the supply, so these "brokers" are able to flip kidneys from poor, desperate people to people in wealthy, developed nations for a considerable profit. In 2011, The WHO estimated that the illegal organ trade "generated profits of up to $1.2 billion per year" (UNODC). The brokers will use deceit and coercion to convince the impoverished donors that they should give up their kidneys. The donors too often comply, although the sudden financial gain usually prove temporary. Other times, as discussed in the article Trafficking for Organ Trade the person willfully donates their organ and is not paid. Still other times, the person might have an operation for a different medical issue, and have an organ removed without their knowledge. The Fight Slavery Now article discussed a village in India for the refugees of the tsunami that had hit. The village became known as Kidneyvakkan or "kidneyville" because of the number of people trying to sell their kidneys.“The women are just lined up,” author Scott Carney says. “They have their exposed midriffs and there are all these kidney extraction scars because when the tsunami happened, all these organ brokers came in and realized there were a lot of people in very desperate situations and they could turn a lot of quick cash by just convincing people to sell their kidneys.” The sale of body parts, as regulated in the UNODC article, is illegal. Body matter is supposed to be donated to be transplanted. That being said, some doctors will implant organs of questionable origin so long as they are of suitable quality for use in patients. The article Trafficking for Organ Trade contends that everyone in the entire process-from the recruiters to traffickers to brokers to middlemen to medical professionals-is responsible for the continuation of the organ trade