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Nickesha King
Professor Schemmeka Mears
ENC 1102
04 August 2015
Organ Trafficking
During my research on the topic of organ trafficking, I discovered that it was a lot
more popular than I initially anticipated. I read a few journal and books that showed how
serious organ trafficking is, and in fact we would think, only human trafficking and drugs
trafficking is the most common ones, but as I read these articles I saw how popular organ
trafficking is, and it really affects our society as well as the other types of trafficking.
Although not thought of as common as human trafficking and drugs trafficking, organ
trafficking is as serious, dangerous, and a popular issue as well.
To show you how serious of a matter organ trafficking is, I will inform you of
ways these organs a retrieved, illegally, which is a crime. Firstly, there are cases where
traffickers force or deceive the victims into giving up an organ (UNODC). To deceive or
force someone to do something that they do not want to do is illegal, because it is against
there will. Forcing a person to give up their organ is like taking away all their rights, and
to deceive them is worst. For a person to not know that an organ was removed is one of
the scariest things. Secondly, there are cases where victims formally or informally agree
to sell an organ and are cheated because they are not paid for the organ or are paid less
than the promised price (UNODC). Thirdly, vulnerable persons are treated for an
ailment, which may or may not exist and thereupon organs are removed without the
victim's knowledge (UNODC). In this particular article it shows how these people that

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are being stripped of their right, are more likely to be of a lower society, have a lack of
education, and or being taken advantage of because of their immigrant status. Many type
of people and health care facilities commit these crime, by trafficking organs. The
recruiter who identifies the vulnerable person, the transporter, the staff of the hospital/
clinic and other medical centers, the medical professionals, the middlemen and
contractors, the buyers, the banks where organs are stored are all involved in the racket
(UNODC).
There is a tremendous amount of cases where patients are on a waiting list for an
organ transplant, but instead thugs, corrupt medics, and politicians are using organs to
sell to people, and are gaining a sizable benefit. The person who is most likely to receive
organs are males around the age of 48 years old, making a yearly income of $53,000 ,
while the donor is a 29 year old male with an income of $480. This shows how desperate
someone of a lower income would be, where they are easily tricked into selling there
organ for a high amount of money, but get cheated, where they would not get paid, or
they would not get the right amount.
Organ trafficking is a dangerous and risky trade, for both the recipient and donor.
Those who choose to go through an illegal organ transplant face great dangers as the
organs are not guaranteed to work and many in fact fail after the operation (J. Castillo).
While the donor can lose his or her life while donating their organs, because most time
these procedures are not done at a hospital. Lack of law enforcement in some countries,
and lack of laws in others, make it easy for traffickers to offer financial incentives to poor
people to part with organs (J. Castillo), makes it much easier to do, but yet more
dangerous and serious.

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One of the most common organ that is being trafficked is the kidney. According
to World Health Organization, The illegal trade in kidneys has risen to such a level that
an estimate of 10,000 black market operations involving human organs, take place each
year. Also stated by World Health Organization, Evidence collected by a worldwide
network of doctors shows that traffickers are defying laws intended to curtail their
activities and are cashing in on rising international demand for replacement kidneys
driven by the increase in diabetes and other diseases.
People who are sick and need organs to survive especially kidney, will go to
various countries, such as China, India, and Pakistan, etc, and pay up to 200,000 dollars
even more to for a kidney, to these organ traffickers who gather these organs illegally
from less fortunate people who feel like they have no other choice, for little or nothing.
Another statement by World Health Organization shows that, Kidneys make up 75% of
the global illicit trade in organs, Noel estimates. Rising rates of diabetes, high blood
pressure and heart problems are causing demand for kidneys to far outstrip supply.
According to noel, people who are partaking in the illegal activity of organ trafficking
can get away with offering a poor person money to give up a kidney due to a lack of
police and regulations in some countries. Data from the WHO shows that of the 106,879
solid organs known to have been transplanted in 95 member states in 2010 (legally and
illegally), about 73,179 (68.5%) were kidneys. But those 106,879 operations satisfied just
10% of the global need (World Health Organization). This data shows the need for
organs and also show why there is a influx and such a big demand for organs on the black
market. 90% of the demand is still there to be met.. Huge increases in demand have

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swayed the practice from the legal procedures to the scams and criminal acquisition of
the organs from the vulnerable and less fortunate.