Organ Trafficking: Global Solutions for a Global Problem - Essay Example

Kidney Trafficking Kidney Trafficking Introduction Human Trafficking has been referred to by many as a variety of modern day slavery. It is an activity that affects people from all parts of the world. Human trafficking may comprise of exploiting other human beings through sexual means, by forcing them into servitude, or through the use of their internal organs. Some years ago, the United Nation’s division of Drugs and Crime made the observation that only the sale of drugs is more lucrative than engaging in human trafficking. The type of trafficking that garners the greatest profits at present has to do with the sale of organs. In many of the wealthier nations of the world, there are increasing numbers of citizens who are succumbing to bodily disorders that are related with affluence. For example, Type II Diabetes can result from gaining excessive weight. This disease could easily weaken the normal functioning of body organs such as the kidneys. The demand for kidneys has thus increased in many Western nations. Moreover, there are few donors of these precious organs. Many Western hospitals have long waiting lists of patients who have to survive through dialysis until they benefit from an organ. Their desperation spawns the activities of international criminal organizations that deal in the trade of organ transplants. Even though the trade in human organs remains illegal in many nations, the demand for these organs, particularly by wealthy people who are ready to part with exorbitant amounts of money to acquire them keeps the trade alive. Kidney Trafficking According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2007, approximately 15% of all the 63,000 kidney transplants that took place in various nations around the world involved financial payment between poor donors who were not related and rich patients from developed nations (Budiani-Saberi & Delmonico, 2008). This would be arranged by members of trafficking organizations who brokered the entire process. Usually, when kidney or other transplants occur, the organs will be acquired from deceased or living donors. Different nations have different laws on the waiting time for any human organ that is removed from a corpse. Moreover, most kidney patients are willing to receive a kidney from either a cadaver or a living person; and only insist on doctors ensuring that the organ is healthy. According to Budiani-Saberi & Delmonico (2008) 65,000 Americans in 2007 alone were documented in the kidney transplant waiting list. Even though there have been concerted efforts to increase the incidences of live organ as well as cadaver donations, this has hardly met the demand for human organs in developed nations. This is what has spurred the black market organizations that trade in human organs (Shelley, 2010). To curb this illegal practice, there will have to be more awareness and campaigning done to inform the public about the importance of donating organs so that more people can make the decision to indicate that they approve of their organs being used to help others in case they are involved in any fatal accidents. In nations like the United States, patients who require kidney transplants have to be included in lengthy waiting lists where they remain until family members or generous strangers, some of whom may be on the brink of expiring, give up their organs. According to Anderson (2003) most patients who require kidney transplants and are on the waiting list will die of their afflictions. The possibility of acquiring black market organs is what drives illegal trade organizations. Some of the nations which have the largest numbers of citizens who are ready to sell their kidneys for money include India, China, Egypt, Pakistan, the Phillippines, and Brazil (Budiani-Saberi & Delmonico, 2008). Human trafficking organizations that specialize in organ trade are also found in Romania, Moldavia, and Colombia. The criminal networks that run such trades are usually well protected by local governments and are mobile and hard to detect. They are also well-established and so can be hard to eliminate because of the ruthlessness with which they operate. Such criminal syndicates organize different kinds of operations in accordance with what their clients are willing to pay for. Different types of operations will require different types of arrangements (Shelley, 2010). When harvesting organs from cadavers, the criminal organization’s hired medical workers have to carry the organs in packed ice. The process of removing organs from live donors is more complicated and expensive because the syndicates have the responsibility of arranging for the travel and living arrangements for both the recipient and donor as well as the medical personnel who will conduct the operation. According to Jafar (2009) the entire process of conducting a kidney transplant could easily include people from several countries; while the recipient and donor hail from different nations, the nation in which the procedure is conducted may also be different. This is referred to as transplant tourism. This transnational quality is one reason why it is so hard to contain the activities of such illegal organizations. The black market trade in human organs usually involves people such as brokers, mobile surgeons, patients, brokers, and ‘kidney hunters’ who use different elements of the mass media to alert populations that they could earn a lot of money by offering one of their kidneys to rich invalids. Many times, these sellers will target extremely poor citizens who urgently need money for one purpose or another (Naqvi, Ali, Mazhar, Zafar, & Rizvi, 2007). Other individuals who are often attracted by such offerings include economic as well as political refugees, unsuspecting immigrants, and guest workers who have only just arrived in a new city and could easily be fooled into visiting dangerous parts of their new city. This is something that even happens in developed nations where such trafficking rings are well established. The After-Effects of Transplant Surgery for the Donors According to a research that is documented by Budiani-Saberi & Delmonico (2008) the lives of the poor or disenfranchised who agree to put their lives in the hands of these illegal syndicates in order to be able to benefit from selling their kidneys in the most lucrative market do not necessarily improve after their sacrifice (Shelley, 2010). In addition, the removal of an organ can result in serious physical, financial and psychological consequences for the person who chooses to donate a kidney if he or she is not given adequate care after the operation. There are many people who imagine that submitting to an operation in which their kidney is removed is a relatively easy process to go through if one is healthy. However, nothing could be further from the truth. According to Jafar (2009), many third world donors are forced to submit to the care of ill-equipped doctors who do not understand the potential consequences of performing such operations because they may not have the time to conduct lengthy examinations of the donors in order to establish if they are qualified to donate their organs or not. According to a study conducted by Budiani-Saberi & Delmonico (2008), many donors from nations such as India will only receive about $1,070 which will then be spent in repaying debts, paying fees, acquiring food, and buying clothes for the family. In addition, once the donor undergoes the operation, he or she is left in a significantly weakened state. This means that a large percentage of the money received may go into paying for additional hospital fees. If the donor was the main wage earner, it is likely that the family will be submerged in more debt and financial problems. In cases where donors were employed in industries where they were required to use their strength, such as the construction or agricultural industries, where the transplant operation forced them to leave employment for a while in order to recuperate. This resulted in loss of wages which further affected the family. According to Jafar (2009) kidney donors in Moldova were actually compelled to employ workers to take their place while they recuperated from the operation. In this case, the majority of the kidney donors were not supplied with adequate post-operative care. This means that they were left more prone to acquiring opportunistic infections due to the weakened state of their bodies and their remaining kidney was overtaxed. According to Naqvi, Ali, Mazhar, Zafar & Rizvi (2007) donors who submit themselves to the machinations of black market organizations tend to experience weakness, chronic pain, and ill-health almost two years after going through the operation. The fate of the donors is often made worse by the fact that they act in concert with the traffickers and, so, cannot run to the law enforcement authorities when they experience health-related problems that leave them feeling short-changed. Another often unreported fact is that donors usually suffer psychologically after undergoing the surgery to remove one of heir kidneys. They may experience a feeling of worthlessness, social isolation, serious depression, and even family problems (Friedman & Friedman, 2006). In many cases, donor from third-world nations belong to religions that discourage the exchange or reception of organs. This means that they are even likely to be excommunicated from their places of worship after undergoing the operation; or may be refused pastoral care and counseling. Ethical Concerns involving International Kidney Trafficking Rings There are different ethical problems that arise when considering the subject of human organ donation. Recently, the ‘Declaration of Istanbul’ registered concern about the rise of transplant tourism in many parts of the developing world. First, there is the issue of inadequate financial compensation for donors from third-world nations. For the most part, these donors are often viewed and used as disposable commodities due to the commercialism that has entrenched itself in the transplant industry. In cases where the relatives of a deceased donor are encouraged to offer up the kidneys of the cadaver, there may be promises to cover the cost of burying the deceased. Such actions go against the premise that the human body- or parts of it- are too valuable to be exchanged for monetary gain. However, to make the process of the transplant of organs more palatable for citizens, different world authorities have tried to present the issue in a different light. According to Friedman & Friedman (2006) the late Pope John Paul II compared giving an organ to a sick person with giving one’s life for them. He referred to organ donation, when it was done for pure reasons, as the most noble ‘act of the most supreme charity’. Another ethical issue has to do with the conditions of donors when they choose to give their body organs in order to to gain financially. Most donors from third world nations do not choose to donate their kidneys to complete strangers because they love them and wish them the best of health, but because they are desperate for any measly amount of money in order to deal with their financial problems. They are in dire socio-economic positions when they first hear of offers to sell their own organs. It is unethical to further take from an individual who already does not have much to give or offer. However, the world’s financial situation burdens the disenfranchised with additional problems and allows the rich to benefit at their expense. Factors that Facilitate Kidney Trafficking There are different reasons why the trafficking of organs in the black market keeps increasing on a yearly basis. One of the reasons is that there is a growing demand for kidneys that greatly surpasses the available numbers of kidneys (Monaco, 2006). This is not just because there are few people willing to allow organs to be taken out of their bodies should they encounter a fatal accident or that there are not many cadavers that are reached in time for the purpose of harvesting cadavers. In many circumstances, most societies are not comfortable with the notion of disturbing cadavers for any reasons. There are cultural taboos in many communities that directly forbid what is perceived as disturbance of the dead or body mutilation (Friedman & Friedman, 2006). Another factor has to do with regulation of the transplant market. While many may feel that this proposal may end black market trading in human organs, it is only likely to benefit the rich at the expense of the poorer people (Shelley, 2010). The use of regulations also unfairly affects the equation and introduces partiality into the whole subject. If rich patients are able to get organs from poorer donors, they will not even make the effort to approach family members for assistance. They will acquire an air of entitlement that allows them to take advantage of the inequality of the financial situation existing in the poorer countries by simply ordering for fresh organs whenever they need to. This situation is unethical because the rich patients are relieved of all emotional responsibilities that come with such arrangements. They merely pay for organs as commodities and leave the rest of the arrangements to other parties. Dealing with Criminal Networks One way through which the demand for organs like kidneys can be dealt with is by increasing efforts to conduct awareness seminars which educate the public about the importance of donating organs or carrying donor cards. The prosecutions of any organ traffickers like enforcers, kidney hunters, and brokers will also assist this process so that the only organs available are those that are acquired without undue cost to the donor. It is also important to educate patients about how kidney donations negatively affect donors from third world communities. For it to be ensured that the existing rules actually bring results, it is important for the penalties to be aimed at medical outfits and personnel such as hospitals, surgeons, and insurance companies. These often plead immunity by claiming that it is not their responsibility to police the human-organs trade, or by asserting that they cannot be expected to monitor what occurs or the deception that is so common. Conclusion Human trafficking rings which specialize in bodily organs such as kidneys are extremely dangerous and often lead people to their deaths. They cannot be overcome through the establishment of rules to find and prosecute their leaders. It is would be more profitable to create sanctions that will affect the seemingly innocent medical orderlies who are contracted to work with underworld figures. If medical orderlies are threatened with the possibility of losing their licenses if discovered to be working in illegal circumstances, they are more likely to steer clear of any shoddy operations involving desperate third world donors. References Anderson, B. (2003). Is trafficking in human beings demand driven? International organization for migration, Oxford UP, Oxford. Budiani-Saberi, D. A., & Delmonico, F. L. (2008). “Ethics corner: Organ trafficking and transplant tourism: A commentary on the global realities.” American Journal of Transplantation, 8(05), 925-929. Friedman, E. A., & Friedman, A. L. (2006). “Payment for donor kidneys: Pros and cons.” Kidney Int, 69, 960–962. Jafar, T. H. (2009). “Organ trafficking: Global solutions for a global problem.” American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 54(6), 1145-1157. Monaco, A. P. (2006). “Rewards for organ donation: The time has come.” Kidney Int., 69, 955-957.  Naqvi, S. A. A., Ali, B., Mazhar, F., Zafar, M. N., & Rizvi, S. A. H. (2007). “A socioeconomic survey of kidney vendors in Pakistan.” Transplant international official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation, 20 (11), 934-939. Shelley, L. I. (2010). Human trafficking: A global perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More