Preview

Kidney theft

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3416 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Kidney theft
In some cases, these entrepreneurial donors are recruited (or learn through word-of-mouth and volunteer) and flown to another nation, where the organ is removed in a makeshift operating room.
KIDNEY THEFT
While at first believed to be a true but surreal horror story (often involving the victim waking up in a bathtub full of bloody ice cubes), and then dismissed as an urban legend, kidney theft has been known to happen. A day laborer, Mohammad Salim Khan, who lived close to Delhi, India, was looking for a day's wages when he agreed to go to a house under the premise that he'd be paid $4 a day for construction work. He was then held at gunpoint for several days, along with two other deceived day laborers. Eventually, they were taken to a hidden operating room, rendered unconscious by drugs and, when they later awoke in horrific pain, were informed that their kidneys had been removed. A medical examination of Khan showed that his kidney had, in fact, been removed. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/organ-donation7.htm At one time, Israeli organ brokers were obtaining kidneys from people in former Soviet-bloc nations and transplanting them into patients who traveled to Turkey for the operation. For the broker, there was money to be made -- one Israeli middleman in the organ trade made $4 million before being caught [source: Rohter].
In the U.S., a black market for human tissue exists. It usually involves bodies about to be cremated. A black market broker may enter into a financial arrangement with a criminally minded funeral home director and carve up the bodies before they're cremated. Falsified papers -- such as consent forms and death certificates -- are produced, and the tissue can then be sold to an American research facility. Sometimes, the tissue may be from a body with an infectious disease, but is sold with documents that claim a different cause of death or medical history. Illegally obtained tissue from just one cadaver

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    More than two million people across the globe are in desperate need for a form of transplant. Waiting lists can be years long, as there is an inadequacy to meet the demand. Seizing on this opportunity, people have turned towards the highly controversial organ trafficking system. The harvesting of such ‘black market’ organs is deemed illegal, but is allegedly booming in China. It has become the destination for people wanting to avoid the waiting lists and receive a ‘quick’ transplant. China conducts more transplant surgeries than any other country besides the United States; and it is said the wait for a vital organ is less than a month and over 10,000 organs are transplanted each year. But unlike other countries, China has no effective organ…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In modern medicine societies, organ transplantation is an opportunity to save peoples’ lives. The downside of organ transplantation is that the demand for organs outweighs the supply. This becomes morally challenging in the context for those who participate in a market as a solution due to the lack of available organs. A market is the selling of organs, which is an unlawful practice in many parts of the world. It is a transaction between those who are seeking for organs to arrange with brokers, and procure organs from those who exist in impoverished, underdeveloped countries. An effort to increase the organ pool is to offer a financial inducement for the organ vendors. The ethical issue of this strategy is that donors no longer participate for altruistic reasons but decide to become vendors, for financial purposes, which means to partake in a commodity for material gain.…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organ Sales

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    will cut dialysis costs and save lives, of both patients in need of new kidneys and those selling or receiving kidneys illegally by unregulated surgeons.” This is a good point, the organs would be ensured safe. The people donating would be more motivated to donate more organs if there was an incentive of making money. Some people fear that, “The lawful sale of organs would legitimize human sacrifice.” Although this might be true successful transplants depended on knowledge of characteristics of the donor. The origin of the organ to be sold must be known for it to be used. Although many fear legalization of this may bring about a “sacrifice spree” others realize that, “The black market cannot be regulated, but its purpose would be defeated if the sale of organs became lawful”. Also legalizing organ selling will create an unlevel playing field. Meaning that people that could not afford to buy an organ would die and the wealthy people will live.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organ Shortage

    • 1884 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The shortage of organs is a problem the increases dramatically every day. In 2010, there were more than 112,000 people on the organ waiting list in the United States. However, there were only 14,507 donors. Of those donors, only 6,564 were "live donors" (UNOS, 2010). Organ trafficking is rising in popularity due to the constant increase in demand for organs and the continuous decrease in supply. Trafficking is the illegal trade of human organs such as the heart, liver, and, most commonly, the kidneys which are used for transplantation. Think about that one show or movie where an unsuspecting person goes out for a drink while on a business trip in a foreign country, then wakes up in a bathtub full of ice, in agonizing pain, and some badly done up stitches in their back- that 's organ trafficking. Every year, about 70,000 kidneys are transplanted worldwide. Of those 70,000, it is estimated that anywhere from 7,000 to 15,000 of them are involved in organ trafficking (Human…

    • 1884 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Patients can’t claim ownership of the tissues removed because of certain laws, so patients can’t make money from their removed tissues while doctors can. For example, a patient isn’t allowed to take his or her appendix home after an appendectomy (Schmidt). Patients have to give consent for bodily tissues to be used in research (Truog, Kesselheim, and Joffe). It does not offer enough safety for the patient, as when a patient dies, tissues donated can be used for medical use, or “processed and sold for profit and become such items as bone putty and collagen” (Josefson). Even though patients dying give consent for their cells to be used in research, they most likely do not know they are also allowing for their tissues to be sold for profit. Which is not fair because someone else is profiting from their tissues and they don’t even know about it. Even though the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 doesn’t allow selling of organs tissue, tissue banks make a profit through use of loopholes: “tissue banking is big business and the law is readily side-stepped by invoking ‘processing and handling fees’ so that the tissue itself is not officially sold” (Josefson). So, tissues donated are usually sold through unofficial “fees” without any consequences. These examples…

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A solution to this issue is necessary to avoid illegal trades in human organs. There have been situations where funeral homes and crematoriums have dismembered bodies and sold them in black markets, obviously without the consent of the family or prior consent by the deceased. There is a system for distributing said body parts for both transplantation and research; however it is illegal to charge for these body parts. One example of selling organs comes from China. China has been forbidden since 1994 from using organs from dead prisoners. This creates controversy because the organs are sold at an erroneously high price and there have been instances where organs were removed, such as kidneys, from prisoners prior to their execution (Scheper-Hughes). The black market for distributing body parts is very lucrative. Unlawful sellers can take as much as $5000 up to tens of thousands of dollars depending on the…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marketing of organs arose many other ethical issues. Authorities will not be bought and sold legally in the U.S., though, there is evidence that the "black market" for organs actually live in countries such as China and other countries as well. Allegations were made that the persons actually traveling to China to buy organs for transplantation. There was evidence that many of these organs come from the bodies of prisoners who were executed. Moreover, it was the only ethical issues, but so has the commercialization, which suggested a very unethical in most countries. According to Nora Machado, the commercialization of organ donation has a contradictory…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are two main systems used for providing a supply of organs in different countries. In the United States, we have an Opt-in system which everyone who doesn't give permission is not a donor, meaning only those who have signed up will have their organs donated when they die. In Sweden they have the Opt-out system which everyone who doesn't refuse is a donor, meaning that unless you have specifically said you will not donate your organs, your organs will be donated when you die. In both the United States and Sweden, the decision about organs and tissues being suitable is made by a healthcare professional, taking into account your medical history.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organ donors from all over the world can buy them from the dead, buying them from the dead and The Mid-America Transplant. Organ donors wait every day till the day of their transplant. Many people will live after the transplant and some people die before the transplant. Some countries in the world can’t have operations in fact they try to sell organs to people who need it.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Kidney Heist Myths

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One of the most unbelievable urban legends that I remember was The Kidney Heist. One of my favorite things to do is searching creepy stories or news and share with my mother. I remember When I read this article about the kidney heist, I was shocked. A traveling businessman was in a bar and was bought drinks by a stranger. He woke up in a tub covered in ice, and couldn't remember what happen the night before. Then he recognized that his kidney was being removed, the strangers steal his kidney to sell on the black market for transplants.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organ Shortage

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the United States, there are 120,000 Americans listed on a transplant list, and over 30 die daily due to waiting or other illness that prevent them from becoming recipients(Washington post, 2014). Organ shortages seem to be a massive problem in the world today. According to the CDC, the most common transplants are the kidney, followed by the liver, heart and lungs (CDC, 2014). Deceased individuals only make up 1% of the donations, leading to an organ shortage today. This brings up several topics as to how these organs are obtained, and why certain types of people are getting better chances of getting the organs versus those who are not.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The phrases “black market” and “organ trafficking” conjure images of shady deals made in the dark alleys of faraway countries; grisly untrained surgeons and kidnapped people. The truth of the matter is, however, that the black market organ trade is much more complex and professional that one might think. The illegal organ trade is a vast, organized network of (mostly) willing donors, middlemen, and the thousands of recipients, some of whom reside right here in America. With the current worldwide shortage of organs, the black market can only expand with an ever increasing effect on medicine, society, and the families involved.…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organ Sales Effectiveness

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages

    And in favor of doing a good deed, some people are actually willing to donate their own organs to save those who are in need, besides, it states that a deceased donor can actually save up to eight lives where there are more than 123,000 people on the waiting list for organ transplant in the United States (American Transplant Foundation n.d.). However, not everyone in the community is willing to donate their organs for free but they would prefer to sell their organs at a higher price which is known as organ sales. And yet only Iran is the only country who allows organ sales while the other countries considered this action as illegal towards their law, although, there are at least another name which is added to the national transplant waiting list every 12 minutes. Also, Organdonor.gov (n.d.) states that every day there is, at least, an average of 79 people who received organ transplant but an average of 22 people had died each day by waiting for a transplant which could not take place due to the shortage of…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    recovery of major vital organs, tissue, and eyes. For tissue and eye recovery, the morgue or bed…

    • 3750 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    written by Rashad Barsoum. Barsoum proceeds to explain how selling kidneys has bettered other countries health and economies. The country the author focuses on is Iran, where they have an organized LUDs system. LUDs stands for “Living Unrelated Donor”. In relation, he explains the costs of a kidney on the market in Iran and the potential cost it would sell for in America compared to the cost of dialysis. There is a list of criteria that needs to be completed in order to be a living unrelated donor. This includes factors such as physical health, blood type, etc. This source focuses more on money and the benefits of legal organ selling. The information provided…

    • 130 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays