Trafficking in Human Organs and Its Economic ...

Trafficking in Human Organs and Its Economic Aspects

Author Name : Aryan Jawahar Prasad Madhavan

A Short History of Global Trafficking in Organs- The first reports on commercial trade in human organs date from the 1980s and concern the selling of kidneys by poverty-stricken Indian citizens to foreign patients, especially from the Middle East. It was reported that around 80% of all kidneys procured for transplantation in Indian hospitals were transplanted into patients from the Gulf states, Malaysia, and Singapore. The first scientific report appeared in the Lancet. It revealedthat 131 kidney patients from the UAE and Oman had travelled to Bombay with their doctors and were transplanted there with kidneys from local paid‘donors’.The authors were not so concerned about the commercialism but more about the fact that many recipients had post-operative complications. This occurred before the Indian Transplantation of Human Organs Act in 1994, which outlawed the selling and buying of human organs.But also, after 1994, there are consistent reports of foreign patients travelling to India in search of a paid kidney donor: Goyal reported on over 300 citizens of Chennai who illicitly sold a kidney in the period 1994 to 2000 Even in developed countries whereit is claimed that no overt payment for organs is made, there is data that financial incentives may have influenced organ allocation: American and European transplant surgeons during the 1980s solicited wealthy foreign patients to come to their transplant centres for a priority transplant. In the United States in 1984, around 300 kidneys were transplanted into non-residents Similar allegations were made by the Bellagio Task Force, who reported that Belgian and Austrian transplant centres did not always exchange available organs with collaborating foreign centres. Still, foreign patients must come to their centres to raise their incomes. Early evidence of EU citizens travelling abroad to obtain organs was provided by an article in the British Medical Journal in 1996, describing that two German patients had died of post-transplant complications after having been transplanted in India. It was stated that at least 25 German patients were known to have obtained kidneys abroad. The article requested ‘appropriate legislation to prevent such incidentsA high-profile case of organ trafficking was reported in 1988 in the UK when it was discovered that a kidney had been removed from a Turkish peasant in a London private clinic run by a well-known nephrologist. The Turkish ‘donor’ had been recruited through advertisements in Istanbul newspapers, promising a fee of GBP 2000-3000. When travelling to London, these donors carried a letter of the introduction saying they would support and care for a relative who was to undergo transplantation. There were no criminal charges against the perpetrators. Still, the nephrologist and three other doctors involved in this case (as well as similar other cases) were struck off the register by the General Medical Council. This case speeded the passing of the UK Human Organ