Recent Kidney-Trafficking Scandal Renews Interest in Organ Debate

Mari Gold

Nov 16, 2011

More than 100,000 US patients are awaiting an organ donation.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, 102,640 US patients are waiting for an organ donation. More than 7,000 people died last year while waiting, and over 2,000 have already died this year for lack of an organ. The problem is in part due to a system that forbids incentives for donation. This rule is not confined to the United States; most countries have laws that prohibit organ trafficking. But because organs are in extremely high demand, the black market for organs is thriving.

The shortage of organs from unrelated donors has led to the macabre black market that exists today. A report in National Geographic tells of a poor neighborhood in India known as "kidney village," where residents illegally sell their kidneys for about $800. Now, Israel is becoming a black market hot spot with a whole new industry -- transplant tourism -- meeting the needs of the wealthy patients.

The most recent scandal involves Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, an Israeli citizen who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Rosenbaum pleaded guilty to illegally purchasing kidneys from desperate Israelis and trafficking them back to the US for transplant at prestigious, but unnamed, American hospitals. Rosenbaum has also reportedly pleaded guilty to conspiracy for illegally brokering kidney sales and allegedly charging $160,000 per organ.

According to Nancy Scheper-Hughes, an anthropologist and organ trade expert, Israel is a hotbed of illegal organ trafficking. Many of those who are willing to donate a kidney (one of the few organs that can be harvested from a live person) are very poor immigrants from Eastern European countries who desperately need money.

The World Health Organization (WHO) references several countries known to be involved in some aspect of the organ trade, including India, Pakistan, China, Bolivia, Brazil, Iraq, Israel, the Republic of Moldova, Peru, Turkey, and Colombia. China and Pakistan have taken steps to curtail the international organ trade, and WHO has called for more protection for the most vulnerable people, who might be tempted to sell a kidney for as little as $1,000.

Egyptian legislation enacted in 2010 stipulates that live organ donations be limited to members of the family and that any decision to remove organs otherwise is punishable by life in prison; however, no one is sure if the new law will be effective.

Jeff Stier, associate director of the American Council on Science and Health, says that despite campaigns to increase altruistic donations, organ donations are basically stagnant. Steir, along with others, argues that a regulated system that creates incentives for donors, whatever those incentives may be, would save lives, reduce shortages that promote the black market, and level the playing field by helping all potential recipients.

In Britain, leading surgeons are urging the government to consider the merits of a legalized market in organs for transplant. A public discussion about permitting people to sell their organs would, the doctors say, allow better-informed decisions on a matter of such moral and medical significance. Professor Sir Peter Bell, former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons, says that "kidney donation has now become so safe it's something you could ethically justify, and it would stop all this illegal trafficking."

However, strong opposition to liberalizing the market remains. Until real change takes place, Rosenbaum and others like him will continue to operate and make money from frightened poor people the world over who are willing to part with an organ for cash.

Sources:

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=176045
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.1818/healthissue_detail.asp
http://www.independent.co.uk/li

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