Organ Harvesting and Trafficking

Organ harvesting is a surgical procedure that removes organs or tissues for reuse, typically for organ transplantation. Organ procurement is heavily regulated in most countries to prevent unethical allocation of organs. However, it is a big business in China.

Human rights groups have known about forced organ harvesting in China for over a decade. Minorities and prisoners are especially vulnerable. They are killed and theirs organ removed. The victims are people who follow Falun Gong, Uyghur Muslims detained in the Xinjiang region, Tibetan Buddhists, and Christians.

The organ recipients are wealthy Chinese or transplant tourists who travel to China and pay a substantial sum to receive the transplant. The waiting times are short and at times vital organs are booked in advance.

Related reading: What You Should Know About Organ Harvesting in China; Harvesting Organs From the Poor; Peter Singer on Harvesting Organs From the Living Dead

Harvesting Organs from the Poor

Organ trafficking and illicit transplant surgeries have infiltrated global medical practice. But despite the evidence of widespread criminal networks and several limited prosecutions in countries including India, Kosovo, Turkey, Israel, South Africa and the US, it is still not treated with the seriousness it demands.

Since the first report into the matter in 1990, there has been an alarming number of post-operative deaths of “transplant tour” recipients from botched surgeries, mismatched organs and high rates of fatal infections, including HIV and Hepatitis C contracted from sellers' organs. Living kidney sellers suffer from post-operative infections, weakness, depression, and some die from suicide, wasting, and kidney failure. Organs Watch documented five deaths among 38 kidney sellers recruited from small villages in Moldova.

Distressing stories lurk in the murky background of today’s business of commercialised organ transplantation, conducted in a competitive global field that involves some 50 nations. The World Health Organisation estimates 10,000 black market operations happen each year.

Read it all here.


Related reading:  Organ Harvesting in Belgium; China Crackdown on Organ Trafficking; Costa Rican Organ Trafficking

Costa Rican Organ Trafficking

Costa Rican police have arrested a doctor for organ trafficking. Dr Francisco Jose Mora, a prominent nephrologist, is allegedly the key figure in a large-scale transnational racket, linked to Israel and Eastern Europe. A police officer who allegedly sourced potential organ donors was also arrested.

"Dr Mora was the general coordinator of the entire international operation," said Jorge Chavarría, Costa Rica's chief prosecutor. "He did everything from interviewing donors to financing tests to determine compatibility."

According to the Mexican newspaper El Universal two Israelis had paid to a Costa Rican and a Nicaraguan US$6,000 to obtain two kidneys that were transplanted in a Costa Rican private clinic. The Costa Rican newspaper CRHoy reported that a woman donor had died on her way back from Israel after a transplant.

The arrests shines a light on the dark side of Costa Rica's booming medical tourism industry. "Costa Rica is known worldwide for its transplant tourism," Roberto Tanus, president of the Transplant Society of Latin America and the Caribbean, told El Universal. "Everyone knows what we are talking about here. Transplant tourism is an elegant disguise for what is really the illicit trafficking of organs."

Related reading:  Organ Trafficking

China Crackdown on Organ Trafficking

Chinese police have arrested 137 people, including 18 doctors, in the latest crackdown on human organ trafficking. The Ministry of Public Security also said that 127 organ suppliers were rescued in raids in late July.

The suspects illegally recruited suppliers over the internet, facilitated the deals and made huge profits from the transactions, which had endangered the health of the suppliers and placed a heavy financial burden on the recipients. "The suspects usually used fake identities to recruit healthy candidates from the internet and put them under secret confinement separated from the outside world," a Ministry of Security statement said.


About 1.5 million Chinese are said to need organ transplants, but only around 10,000 are performed annually due to a lack of donors. The gap has generated an organ trafficking industry, which seems to flourish even though the sale of organs was declared illegal last year. ~ London Telegraph, Aug 5