Organ Trafficking

Organ Trafficking: A Booming Black Market

Organ transplantation, starting as an ambiguous and experimental surgical procedure in the 1950s, has developed over the past sixty years and become a widely beneficial treatment carried out in hospitals worldwide. Organ transplantation is the “established treatment for the failure of vital organs such as the kidneys, pancreas, liver, heart or lung,” with kidney transplant being the most common. By 2000, kidney transplants were being conducted in “the U.S., in most European and Asian countries, in several South American and Middle Eastern countries, and in four African nations.”

With the use and spread of technologies, organ transplants are now saving lives throughout the world. Because of this, there is an increasing global demand for organs. Unfortunately, supply has not been able to keep up with this high demand. In the U.S. alone, there are about 80,000 people waiting to receive an organ and yearly, about 10 percent of people waiting for a heart transplant die because there is none available. No countries but Belgium, Austria, and Spain have been able to satisfy the demands of its people.

This shortage of organs is largely due to religious and/or cultural barriers. In many Middle Eastern Islamic countries, religion discourages organ donation from cadavers, “[emphasizing] the need to maintain the integrity of the body at burial.” The same is seen in very orthodox Jewish traditions as well as many Asian countries because of high respect for elders. While there are some traditional and religious people from these backgrounds who have accepted organ donation and sanctioned it “as a gift of life,” many people denounce it and “transplantation from cadaveric sources is rare.” In western countries as well, many people are opposed to letting their dead relatives become organ donors. Throughout the world, people in need of an organ rely mostly on living kin.

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