Organ Trafficking Essay

705 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Human trafficking and international trade

I believe it is clear to say that most, if not every one of us is aware of the choice given to us at the DMV to be put on the back of our driver licenses about whether or not we chose to become an organ donor, but this choice is for when we have already passed. See, what we may not even be aware of is that people everywhere are trafficked for the sole purpose of their organs and these people do NOT consent to the removal of their organs. To my knowledge, often times these people undergo surgeries for the removal of their organs without any anesthesia, so they are fully awake and aware of what is happening to them. Most times these surgeries aren’t even done by professionals or with ‘clean’ tools. In other cases, many people around the world …show more content…

Organ trafficking is a form of human trafficking that occurs all over the world, but for the purpose of this study we will look into the world of organ trafficking in Eastern Europe. Organ trafficking has become an international trade (Lita, 2007) and in fact it is ranked no. 47 out of 50 of activities and products that are sold on the illegal underground economy with a value of $75 million (Havecscope, 2007), while human trafficking ranked higher at no. 16 with a value of $32 billion, that’s billion with a ‘B’ (Havecscope, 2007). Before we get into the world of organ trafficking/transplant tourism in Eastern Europe, I want to go ahead and discuss the ‘financial’ side of organ trafficking. According to the site Havocscope which is a site where one could find information on the global black market the cost to buy and sell a kidney and/or organ on the black market is based upon open source documents. The various prices the Havocscope site lists (last updated Oct. 9, 2013) is shown in U.S. …show more content…

As listed, it shows that on average a person selling a kidney is paid $5,000 and that’s not even the crazy part, because on average a kidney buyer pays an (insane) amount of $150,000! That’s 30x more than what the seller gets paid! Remind you these are only average pays on kidneys alone. Let us take a look at a few more numbers from around the world. Once again, according to Havocscope’s list, the lowest amount paid for a kidney is to a seller in Kenya for an amount of only $650, while the highest amount paid is to a seller in Ukraine (part of Eastern Europe) for an amount of $200,000. As for kidney buyers, the lowest amount paid is in Saudi Arabia for an amount of $16,000, while the highest buying price comes from Singapore for a whopping amount of $300,000! And just for a ‘fun’ fact to know, it shows that a kidney buyer here in the United States would pay an amount of $120,000. Now let’s take a look at a few more countries from Eastern Europe that are listed on the Havocscope black market information site. It shows that kidney sellers in Turkey get paid $10,000 and the traffickers make a $10,000

Show More
Related

  • Case Study Assignment: Opt Out Organ Donation Without Presumptions

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his article “Opt-out organ donation without presumptions”, Ben Saunders is writing to defend an opt-out organ donation system in which cadaveric organs can be used except in the case that the deceased person has registered an objection and has opted-out of organ donation. Saunders provides many arguments to defend his stance and to support his conclusion. This paper will discuss the premises and elements of Saunders’ argument and how these premises support his conclusion. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the effectiveness of Saunders’ argument, including its strengths and weaknesses. Lastly, it will discuss how someone with an opposing view might respond to his article,

    Read More

  • Organ Sales Will Save Lives by Joanna MacKay

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joanna MacKay says in her essay, Organ Sales Will Save Lives, that “Lives should not be wasted; they should be saved.” Many people probably never think about donating organs, other than filling out the paperwork for their drivers’ license. A reasonable amount of people check ‘yes’ to donate what’s left of their bodies so others may benefit from it or even be able to save a life. On the other hand, what about selling an organ instead of donating one? In MacKay’s essay, she goes more in depth about selling organs.

    Read More

  • Anthony Gregory Analysis

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    Yearly, thousands die from not receiving the organs needed to help save their lives; Anthony Gregory raises the question to why organ sales are deemed illegal in his piece “Why legalizing organ sales would help to save lives, end violence”, which was published in The Atlantic in November of 2011. Anthony Gregory has written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers, amongst the hundreds of articles is his piece on the selling of organs. Gregory states “Donors of blood, semen, and eggs, and volunteers for medical trials, are often compensated. Why not apply the same principle to organs? (p 451, para 2)”. The preceding quote allows and proposes readers to ponder on the thought of there being an organ

    Read More

  • Transplant Tourism Case Study

    1789 Words  | 4 Pages

    First of all, we can assess issues concerning the donor. For example, is it ever ethically acceptable to weaken one person’s body to benefit another? It has to be said that the practiced procedures are not conducted in the safest of ways, which can lead to complications for both donors and recipients (Delmonico 1416). There are also questions concerning of informed consent: involved donors are not always properly informed about the procedure and are certainly not always competent to the point of fully grasping the situation (Greenberg 240). Moral dilemmas arise for the organ recipient as well. For instance, how is it morally justifiable to seek and purchase organs in foreign countries? Is it morally acceptable to put oneself in a dangerous situation in order to receive a new organ? Some serious safety issues are neglected in such transactions since the procedures sometimes take place in unregulated clinics (Shimazono 959). There is also the concept of right to health involved in this case (Loriggio). Does someone’s right to health have more value than someone else’s? Does having more money than someone else put your rights above theirs? All of these questions have critical consequences when put into the context of transplant tourism and the foreign organ trade. The answers to these questions are all taken into account when answering if it is morally justifiable to purchase

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The Ethics Of Organ Donation

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    Organ sales and donation are a controversial topic that many individuals cannot seem to agree upon. However, if someone close; a family member, friend, or someone important in life needed a transplant, would that mindset change? There are over one hundred and nineteen thousand men, women, and children currently waiting on the transplant list, and twenty-two of them die each day waiting for a transplant (Organ, 2015). The numbers do not lie. Something needs to be done to ensure a second chance at life for these individuals. Unfortunately, organ sales are illegal per federal law and deemed immoral. Why is it the government’s choice what individuals do with their own body? Organ sales can be considered an ethical practice when all sides of the story are examined. There are a few meanings to the word ethical in this situation; first, it would boost the supply for the

    Read More

  • The Kidney Shortage Problem

    1392 Words  | 3 Pages

    Critics of kidney sales argue that impoverished people are more likely to sell their organs than the rich. (Matas, 2004) They claim that the practice of kidney sales is injustice since vulnerable vendors are targeted and that they may suffer from lengthy health problems after the operations which may eventually lead to the loss of jobs. (Bramstedt, 2010)

    Read More

  • Organ Donation Cause And Effect Essay

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    The uncontainable despair of the weeping and screaming parents entering a room full of body bags containing the altered remains of their children. In a room drained with blood and surrounding fridges for the maintenance of the ejected organs, everything seems miserably surreal(“Children Kidnapped for Their Organs”). This is only one of the discovered cases of the daily dozens of people killed for organ harvestation. Adding up to ten thousand illegal operations in 2012 which translates to hourly sales (Samadi). These abhorrent acts add up as crimes against humanity which are triggered by a numerous amount of reasons; in order to stop these constant atrocities we must uncover the root of the causes.

    Read More

  • Distributive Justice and Organ Transplants

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history physicians have faced numerous ethical dilemmas and as medical knowledge and technology have increased so has the number of these dilemmas. Organ transplants are a subject that many individuals do not think about until they or a family member face the possibility of requiring one. Within clinical ethics the subject of organ transplants and the extent to which an individual should go to obtain one remains highly contentious. Should individuals be allowed to advertise or pay for organs? Society today allows those who can afford to pay for services the ability to obtain whatever they need or want while those who cannot afford to pay do without. By allowing individuals to shop for organs the medical profession’s ethical belief in equal medical care for every individual regardless of their ability to pay for the service is severely violated (Caplan, 2004).

    Read More

  • Mandated Choice Policy: A Solution to Organ Donor Shortage

    1477 Words  | 3 Pages

    The shortage of organ donations for transplants is an ongoing problem in the United States. The number of individuals in need of organ transplants greatly exceeds the number of authorized and registered organ donors, both living and deceased. Furthermore, the waitlist for individuals in need of transplants continues to grow every day3. In other words, the supply of organs does not meet the demand for them, and there is an ongoing debate as to how to address this issue. Concerns about individual autonomy and informed consent also play a large role in organ donation. This paper will focus primarily on a mandated choice policy proposal that is a potential solution to the shortage of organ donors. This policy aims to increase the number of registered

    Read More

  • The Ethics of Organ Donation

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    When viewing organ donation from a moral standpoint we come across many different views depending on the ethical theory. The controversy lies between what is the underlying value and what act is right or wrong. Deciding what is best for both parties and acting out of virtue and not selfishness is another debatable belief. Viewing Kant and Utilitarianism theories we can determine what they would have thought on organ donation. Although it seems judicious, there are professionals who seek the attention to be famous and the first to accomplish something. Although we are responsible for ourselves and our children, the motives of a professional can seem genuine when we are in desperate times which in fact are the opposite. When faced with a decision about our or our children’s life and well being we may be a little naïve. The decisions the patients who were essentially guinea pigs for the first transplants and organ donation saw no other options since they were dying anyways. Although these doctors saw this as an opportunity to be the first one to do this and be famous they also helped further our medical technology. The debate is if they did it with all good ethical reasoning. Of course they had to do it on someone and preying upon the sick and dying was their only choice. Therefore we are responsible for our own health but when it is compromised the decisions we make can also be compromised.

    Read More

  • Essay On Organ Trafficking

    1873 Words  | 4 Pages

    People consider trafficking to be only in the form of sex, but trafficking actually has many different categories. Human trafficking is defined as people who sell or trade their bodies, or other people’s bodies for different purposes like, forced labor, sex, forced marriage, and even organs. Trafficking of any kind is considered a crime in the United States and every other country in the world except Iran because it is a violation of human rights. Although trafficking is illegal, it still takes place all over the world and statistics say that trafficking brings in approximately 32 billion dollars of international trade per year. Out of all the different forms of trafficking, organ trafficking is the most dangerous. The compensation of organ donors was legal until 1984 when the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 was put into place. Many people turn to buying organs because there is a shortage of organs and some patients may be on the organ transplant list for years. Because there is such a shortage of available organs for transplantation, many people turn to buying or selling organs on the black market illegally. If trafficking was legalized with regulations, there would rarely be a need to use the black market. Even though the 32 billion dollars that the black market makes each year would rapidly diminish, the money would be spent in other places, and legally. Many people argue that a human life should be invaluable but by legalizing the trafficking of organs, the list for organ transplants would slowly disappear. If the sale of organs was legal with heavy regulations, many more organs would be donated; therefore, many more lives would be saved all over the world.

    Read More

  • Organ Trafficking

    1544 Words  | 4 Pages

    I have a healthy heart that has a steady beat of 74 beats per minute with two functioning kidneys. I have twelve pints of blood circulating throughout my veins and arteries. I have a thick brown hair and a full set of orthodontic perfected teeth. I have an operating liver along with a spleen filtering out my old red blood cells and producing antibodies. I am American and have white skin, with A positive blood. In total, I'm worth about $300,000 on the organ market. The organ trade is one of the fastest growing and least enforced trafficking crimes throughout the globe today (Glazer 341). Sarah Glazer claims in "Organ Trafficking" that 5,000 to 10,000 of the 100,000 transplanted organs are obtained illegally each year (341). Although the laws passed and organizations founded have delayed the escalation of organ trafficking, the selling and distribution of compensated organs should remain illegal and suppressed beyond the efforts gave today in order to stop the exploitation of the poor and put an end to forced organ harvesting.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Organ Trafficking

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    The demand for organs is at an all time high in our modern world of medicine right now, with over 120,000 Americans waitlisted for an organ and a total of 28,954 who have actually received an organ. Only 14,257 others truly had donated and the other half of organ transplants were done with illegally obtained organs. While it’s illegal almost everywhere, there is no doubt that there is a thriving global market of organ trafficking happening in the world today. Business is booming in the organ black market and according to a report by Global Financial Integrity, it is generating an estimated $50 billion annually worldwide. I think it is time to make organ trafficking legal because with that kind of money being brought in we can help build and

    Read More

  • The Process of Buying and Selling Organs Should be Legalized

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    First of all, buying and selling organs can help save a person’s life. When a person is in need of an organ and has to have it in order to survive then that person should have a right to have that specific organ. If a donor is willing to save a life and agrees to sell his/her own organs then why should it be illegal? Legalizing this issue can help save thousands of lives around the world, it might be a bit expensive to buy an organ but it can help a person from dying and suffering. This process is a voluntary process, the government doesn’t force people to sell their own organs, and it’s a decision a person is willing to make. It might be quite risky to legalize it, and governments might receive a large backlash from several communities, but th...

    Read More

  • Essay About Organ Donation

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    Organ donation is a selfless way to give back to others, it can also make a huge difference by giving another person a second chance at life. There are over 117,000 men, women, and children who are currently waiting for life saving organ transplants. Every ten minutes a new person is added to the organ transplant list. Unfortunately, some will never make it to the top of the list. The generosity of an individual donor can save up to eight live through organ donation and enhance another fifty through tissue donation. Organ transplants are one of the most miraculous achievements of modern medicine . Becoming an organ donor is simple and can save the lives of many individuals needing help. So how did organ transplantation start, and how is it done, and what was is the future of organ donation and organ transplants.

    Read More

More about Organ Trafficking Essay

Open Document