Organ Trafficking

By Lonnie Hodge

March 31, 2006

I was surfing the Internet for information on various country policies on organ sales and transplantation. In the process I discovered a site that, on the face, was advertising computer parts, but contained dozens of ads from people worldwide. What took me aback was that most of the people were not hapless victims of unscrupulous traffickers, but folks for one financial reason or another hoping to alleviate pressure by self promoting the sale of a kidney. The sellers were from developed and developing countries.

The cost of a kidney varied from $10,000 US dollars to $100,000 US Dollars. Many of the ads were aimed at Israelis who have no laws forbidding the purchase of organs and all offered to travel to countries where a transplant could be made safely and cost effectively. India was one suggested destination where the laws seem to be unclear about procedures.

China, long criticized Internationally for organ sales, has said it will ban the sale of human organs beginning in July. New regulations will require donors to have their wishes in writing and transplants must be done only in hospitals that specialize in such procedures. This new development likely was due to publicity surrounding the deaths of foreigners who made the trek to China for transplants.

It is interesting to note that no Chinese sellers were on the website I found. It is a cultural taboo to sell body parts. Superstition dictates that you must die intact in order to have good fortune in the afterlife. This has created a major organ shortage which has bred an aggressive black market inside China. Prisoners executed have also supplied organs for Chinese, some from Hong Kong and other wealthier areas, to meet the demand. The government contends that very few prisoners bodies are harvested and only with their prior consent. China only does about 20,000 transplants a year. Not much for a country of over a billion people.

Under the new law, hospitals will lose their licenses to transplant if their patients do not survive a predetermined certain number of years after the transplant. I do not even have to write about the frightening possibilities of this condition, do I?

As a publicity device (OK, stunt!) I once sold a woman's conscience for her on e-Bay so she could retaliate against a philandering ex-boyfriend who had driven her to financial and emotional ruin. You could have bought it with a certificate of authenticity in a hand jeweled bag had you bid. But, an organ sale is no stunt and the stakes are high.

I am wondering how many of you would sell a kidney if worse came to worse? This post came about because I gave it serious consideration as a way to save Ms Yue. If spending three or four days in a hospital to surrender a kidney to save TWO lives were possible I just might consider it. You?

Copyright © 2006 by Lonnie Hodge.

This article posted April 16, 2006.