Sale of human organs worldwide problem

• April 26, 2024

"Due to financial problems I am willing to donate part of my life to save you and me, I am a 27 year old" OR "positive" It is the first hit statement on Google when searching for the words "I buy kidney". Along with more than 160 thousand hits that appear on the subject in the web search.

A kidney has an approximate value of 6 thousand dollars in Iran, the only country in the world where the sale of organs is legal. The rate decreases by almost half in countries like India. And it is said that China has the most growing organ trafficking market in the world.

Latin America is not far behind, although there is no data from official sources, the problem is glimpsed through Internet portals, in which organ purchase and sale transactions take place.

Legislation needed in organ trafficking

The World Health Organization estimates that among the 70,000 kidney transplants annually around the world, a fifth is considered to have its origin in the black market. The laws of supply and demand explain why the phenomenon.

In a Newsweek publication, he points out that new knowledge fuels illegal trade, since it is now known that a kidney extracted from a living person can be twice as useful as that from a corpse. And thanks to new anti-rejection injections (immunomodulators), it is likely to get donors that are more compatible without necessarily being close relatives.

"The sale of organs has become a global problem," confesses Frank Delmónico, professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. "And it is likely to become a much worse problem unless the challenges and legislation needed to stop it are confronted"

Video Medicine: Undercover video of human organ traders - BBC News (April 2024).