Organ trafficking is among the most serious problems confronting civilization in the present day. It is the exercise of stealing an individual’s body part via surgery when under the effect of drugs or deceased people’s organs are offered for sale in the black market in places like Russia and China. Human organ sales are not illicit but also unethical, and in most cases, dangerous, and they are skewed against the poor. Recently, human organ trafficking has evolved into a universal business and it is increasingly expanding due to globalization. Such commercialization, however, is prohibited and secretive, which is why it is referred to as the black market.
This paper therefore, will be discussing the causes of organ trafficking including demand, poverty, and the frantic efforts to save individual or some loved ones lives. Additionally, the paper will further evaluate the effects of organ trafficking such as the increased rate of kidnaps, constant fear and mistrust in the society, and the recipients of the bought organs being put at risk since the transplants are carried out in secret hence not properly tested for diseases.
Body part trafficking is on the increase all over the globe. Several prominent media outlets have reported on systems of traders, doctors, and hospitals engaged in illicit trade. Lucrative businesses that facilitate these unfettered programs exploit the underprivileged in underdeveloped nations, providing inadequate health care with undesirable results to the wealthy (Martin et al., 2019). Their execution has hampered hard work to increase humane body part donation and resolves to reduce transplant tourism. Simultaneously, the global increase in the sum of patients with organ failure, combined with a scarcity of body parts, carries on to fuel this craft.
Organ trafficking, organ procurement, transplant tourism, and organ sales are just some of the activities that make up the organ craft. Nonetheless, organ trafficking is the most common definition of the organ trade. Organ trafficking is a significant problem, but it does not reflect the whole spectacle. According to ACAMSToday (2018), organ deals and transplant tourism, according to evidence-based studies, are more closely associated with the organ trade.
Furthermore, it is disputed that the organ trade is due to the relocation of transplant proficiencies to the Asian nations, rather than being a straight result of the universal scarcity of organ provisions. The organ trade’s pretentious placing as a target for criminal prosecution dissuades objective focus away from the donation business. It surrounds the occurrence within a constricted illegitimate prototype, following what would be referred to as prescribed unlawful responses that ignore crucial crossings of politics, agency, history, and identity.
The most common cause for the unrelenting growth in trafficking is that people become frantic when it comes to salving their individual lives and take steps they would never have considered. Further, the waiting list for body part donors is constantly too elongated for individuals of all ages, males, females, and kids, to be seated unwearyingly and anticipate a match. A significant reason for an uptick in the black market body parts sales is that the organ donation coming up list keeps expanding each month (United Nations, 2019). Individuals are prepared to give hundreds of thousands to have their body parts illegitimately to avoid dying while in the wait for a donor counterpart legitimately.
The length of time a person must wait for an organ is determined by several aspects, which match compatibility. The typical coming-up period for an organ ranges between 3 to5 years, depending on the person’s blood type (United Nations, 2019). Keeping in mind that for one to be included on the state body part replacement coming up list, one ought to be in desperate requirement of the organ they are requesting (Broumand & Saidi, 2017). In that respect, people who do not have time to wait for their turn on the waiting list are what the organ trafficking industry relies on. Understandably, those fearing that they are running out of time and their family members by the time they manage to get an organ are more vulnerable to manipulation by the sellers.
One of the most significant contributors to organ trafficking is poverty. The poor are affected by black-market auctions, as they are abused for their body parts owing to their monetary circumstances. On the other hand, even in organ sales being legal, it would still be manipulate the underprivileged. It is fair to assume that the prospect of monetary benefit will be an appealing choice for the needy to soar out of their economic difficulties. However, flawed individual’s financial struggles force them to make decisions they would not have taken otherwise. It is a tragic condemnation of the social state that society will want to find an income margin whenever there is a demand, even if it means abuse of fellow humans.
Further, selling an organ sometimes plays a role in the victim selling another in the future. According to (Srour, 2018), the costs of healthcare sustained due to poorly performed procedures, quickly, and short of adequate hygiene are far more significant than the responsibilities that drive individuals to the black market. Also, organ trafficking victims are further incapable of seeking reimbursement from their surgeons in law courts because selling body parts is illegal in most nations.
Demand is the other cause that promotes the sale of human organs in the black market. Organ demand is hiking sharply in developing nations, although supply is merely slightly rising. This primes to what the World Health Organization refers to as “transplant tourism,” whereby individuals travel across foreign boundaries to obtain a body part transplant (ACAMSToday, 2018). Further, ACAMSToday (2018) says that most of body parts beneficiaries come from states where waiting lists are lengthy, or transplants are prohibited. The majority of benefactors come from South Asia and Eastern Europe’s former Soviet bloc. Individuals who are put on coming up lists and believe they lack any other choice or individuals who do not want to jeopardize a prized person’s life by requesting a donation do this as a final remedy.
Following the nature of body part acquisition in the black market, the primary and utmost apparent obstruction to body part trade is that it roots unwarranted harm or danger to compensating body part donors. Body part trafficking in the present day generates a boundless deal of preventable and intolerable harm. Body part trafficking has a detrimental effect on the whole population. The poor are deprived of their excellent well-being as a result of this abuse. Smugglers constantly exploit them to ensure that they do not hand them over. Organ trafficking affects an individual’s healthiness and well-being (Martin et al., 2019). Individuals whose body parts are traded suffer from ailments and disorders due to the excessive requests for body parts. Also, others are robbed to sell their body parts. Due to such unethical activities, even health companies are losing their reputations.
Unlawful organ trafficking has far-reached negative consequences for the vulnerable in affected nations. Consequently, the rising number of kidnappings has instilled in the public an irrational fright of being kidnapped. Even in their households, there lacks a sense of protection, as delinquents grow more audacious with each fruitful abduction and body part harvest. According to Martin et al. (2019), this relentless fright has taken its toll, and nobody, as well as law implementation officers, can be relied on. ‘Jungle justice’ reigns supreme, with those accused of attempting an abduction being strung up on the spot. Notably, people have resulted to behaving like animals as a result of the state of affairs.
Sadly, the broker’s profit from the illicit body part trade, instead of the impoverished people duped into selling their organs for a pittance. They have no place to turn for help because there was never a legally binding contract, to begin with (Krishnan, 2018). Also, since the appropriate healing follow-up is not conceded after the transfer, the well-being of such donors routinely deteriorates. The casualty is bodily and emotionally exhausted as a result of the attack.
Hence they lose their ability to care for themselves and turn into a liability to their families. Furthermore, the beneficiaries of donated body parts do not get enough assessment for their exchange because, in most cases, these body parts are not adequately screened for infections. The donor’s medical past is not verified before the transfer, which is performed in secret.
Even though orders, rules, and pacts forbid body part trade, it remains and is spreading throughout continents. Even though body part trading is illegal, it is clear that the exercise is expanding rapidly, necessitating removing the source of development. Therefore, it is recommendable that transplant tourism and body part trade are made legal with provisions of legal bindings and guidelines. Also, strict laws prohibiting the purchase of human organs outside the legal market should be set up by state administrations, enacted, and enforced. This way, the black market will be rendered useless and consequently minimizing crime and promoting security.
In summary, the growing universal black market for human body parts has been fueled by a scarcity of readily available body parts for replacement. Regardless of the existence of robust foreign and nationwide acts prohibiting body part sales, it still endures and at an upsetting speed. Body part trafficking goes against the very foundations of human civil rights. As a result, it’s logical that it’s illegal in every country. More critical than criminalizing it, though, is the requirement to put an end to it, and the best way to accomplish that is to go after the source of the issue. After recognizing the excessive demand and availability of body parts for transplantation as the source of black market development, there is a necessity to escalate supply to counter demand.
Finally, states, health care professionals, and civil society campaigners must all work together to safeguard defenseless individuals from body part trafficking. All key actors must follow through on their commitments to produce the best possible result for both donors and beneficiaries in their particular states and their universal equivalents. It is critical to participate in fruitful public-private cooperation to efficiently curb body part trafficking and increase its profile among other types of international controlled lawbreaking. In this universal battle, the private division and the commercial industry can be critical.
References
ACAMSToday. (2018). Organ Trafficking: The Unseen Form of Human Trafficking. Web.
Broumand, B. & Saidi, R. (2017). New definition of transplant tourism. International Journal of Organ Transplant Medicine, 8(1), 49-51. Web.
Krishnan, M. (2018). Legalizing trafficking: Iran’s unjust organ market and why legal selling of organs should not be the resolve. Berkeley Political Review. Web.
Martin, D., Van Assche, K., Dominguez-Gil, B., Lopez-Fraga, M., Gallont, R., Capron, A. (2019). Strengthening global efforts to combat organ trafficking and transplant tourism: Implications of the 2018 edition of the Declaration of Istanbul. Transplant Direct, 5(3), e433. Web.
Srour, M. (2018). Human trafficking for organs: Ending abuse of the poorest. Inter Press Services News Agency. Web.
United Nations. (2019). Organ Trafficking. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Web.