Imagine being deadly-ill and needing a new organ to survive. But the list of people in need is topping 100,000 and there is only between 5,000 and 8,000 traditional (deceased) organ donors per year, the chance of you getting a new organ is very small. What are you going to do, die? For some people a solution is to buy an organ from the black market. For about $150,000 a broker will reach across continents to connect you with a seller, whom they then guide to a “broker-friendly” hospital and voila you have a new good organ and hopefully survive.
One fifth of the 70,000 kidneys transplanted worldwide every year come from the black market according to the World Health Organization. The exchange of human organs – mostly kidneys, but also half-livers, eyes, skin and blood – is illegal in every country except Iran but the international organ trafficking is still flourishing. Frank Delmonico, a surgery professor at …show more content…
I think it is ethically wrong to take advantage of someone in need of money. The organs often come from desperate parents or anxious teenagers in the slums willing to part with a kidney in exchange for cash, a chance to see the world and to make their lives a little bit easier. Some people even think they are helping these poor people, but you are not. The organ sellers typically get a few thousand dollars for their troubles while the brokers take most of the money. There are also health risks posed by donating a kidney. "Recovery from surgery is much more difficult when you don’t have clean water or decent food," Nancy Scheper-Hughes says in her research Organ Trafficking Is No Myth. Also, research on the long-term effects of organ donation — in any country—is nonexistent, you don’t know what the effects are and if they might be dangerous. You are only helping
One fifth of the 70,000 kidneys transplanted worldwide every year come from the black market according to the World Health Organization. The exchange of human organs – mostly kidneys, but also half-livers, eyes, skin and blood – is illegal in every country except Iran but the international organ trafficking is still flourishing. Frank Delmonico, a surgery professor at …show more content…
I think it is ethically wrong to take advantage of someone in need of money. The organs often come from desperate parents or anxious teenagers in the slums willing to part with a kidney in exchange for cash, a chance to see the world and to make their lives a little bit easier. Some people even think they are helping these poor people, but you are not. The organ sellers typically get a few thousand dollars for their troubles while the brokers take most of the money. There are also health risks posed by donating a kidney. "Recovery from surgery is much more difficult when you don’t have clean water or decent food," Nancy Scheper-Hughes says in her research Organ Trafficking Is No Myth. Also, research on the long-term effects of organ donation — in any country—is nonexistent, you don’t know what the effects are and if they might be dangerous. You are only helping