Booming Black Market For Human Organs

No price tag can be put on human life.  But, theoretically, your body could be worth as much as $45 million. You would have to sell every organ, tissue and usable chemical in your body to reap that bounty. However, there are no shortage of buyers, especially on the burgeoning black market.

Although trafficking in illegally harvested organs is a crime in most countries, the practice continues to flourish.  The reason the murky business has grown is the mushrooming demand for organs and tissues coupled with the shortage of legal donors.  That gap is being filled on the black market.

Consider in the United States alone there are more than 122,000 people on an organ waiting list.  That is more than triple the number in 1993. Every ten minutes a new person is added to that waiting list. The biggest demand is for kidneys, fueled by the increase in diabetes and related diseases.

There were 33,595 transplant operations performed in the country last year, according to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  That represents an almost nine percent increase from 2015.

Worldwide the latest figures for 2014 show organ transplants reached a record of 119,873, reports the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation.  The biggest percentage of the transplants, 41.6 percent, were for kidneys.  But this data doesn't tell the whole story.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that current organ transplants cover only about 10 percent of the global demand.  A report by Global Financial Integrity revealed that black market organ sales generate between $600 million and $1.2 billion in profits annually worldwide.

Impoverished nations, including Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, are hotbeds of unscrupulous organ harvesting.  Gangs in China, India and Pakistan often dupe or coerce poor people to surrender their kidneys. Wealthy patients around the globe are paying as much as $191,000 for a kidney.

In China, there are reports that members of dissident groups are executed by the government, but not before harvesting their organs.  In Egypt, young men are tricked into showing up for a job, only to have their kidneys surgically removed by crooked doctors for sale on the black market.

There have been few arrests because illegal organ transactions are often laundered through mainstream health care organizations, including hospitals, clinics and medical professionals.  Once the organs enter the system, they become legitimate and are thus nearly impossibly to trace.

Without some way to identify black market organs, there is no way to police the practice.

At least the United States has begun to prosecute a few cases.  Five people in New Jersey were arrested for illegally obtaining kidneys for $10,000 and selling the organs for up to $160,000 to patients in need. But this is only the tip of a large and expanding iceberg of corruption.

For instance, in 2013 there were 121,272 Americans waiting for an organ.  A total of 28,954 received a transplanted organ.  However, there were only 14,257 donors recorded.  That means 14,000 people may have received organs that were obtained on the black market.

The U.S. is one of nearly 100 nations that have signed on to a statement banning global organ exploitation.  Despite the agreement, there has been no dent in the illegal trade of organs.  One way to attack the problem is to increase the supply of organs from living and deceased donors.

In the U.S., surveys show overwhelming support among Americans for organ donation.  Research puts the number as high as 95 percent of adults.  However, only 48 percent have signed up as organ donors in event of their death.  Closing that gap could help reduce the black market for organs.

However, more donors won't end the practice.  Nations must develop sophisticated means to trace the origin of every transplanted organ before it reaches the patient.  By vetting each organ, it will staunch the worldwide racketeering of body parts.