Organ Trade

Luke Molloy

Engl 111-36

Professor Doug Estell

8 February 2016

 Human Trafficking

                Did you know your organs could be worth a various sum of cash? In the article “Human Traffic: Exposing the brutal Organ Trade” by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author Nancy brings to light the disturbing issue of organ trade. It’s a matter that a lot of the world remains ignorant of and for that purpose exactly is what this passage is for.

        Nancy takes the reader on a journey through the black market and shows many other aspects of organ trading. She holds countless interviews and shows her progress in uncovering the horrifying subject.  The author explains the different factors involved when it comes to buying and selling your organs.

        In the organ trade there’s a buyer, seller, and the broker a.k.a. the surgeon or crime leader. It starts with someone needing an organ transplant known as the buyer. The buyer could need the organ for a few reasons. An example could be if the buyer had dialysis and needed a new kidney to sustain life. He would seek out a broker and then they would find a seller.

 The brokers are surgeons or crime figures who help organize the procedure. The brokers manipulate and lie to convince someone else into selling their organs. They have even often threatened a man physically if he wasn’t going to give up the kidney.” Those who refused outright were threatened or beaten. One young man, Vladimir*, explained the stark ‘choice’ that faced him in Istanbul: ‘If I hadn’t given up my kidney to that dog of a surgeon, my body would be floating somewhere in the Bosporus Strait.”(5) The brokers are basically always on the run 24/7 doing their work in various places to avoid detection.

The sellers were often poor young men that were vulnerable to what some thought was worth it. “Most enter willingly into a ‘transaction’ in which they agree to the terms, which are verbal, but only realize later how they have been deceived, defrauded or cheated. Few are informed enough to give consent.” (6) Sellers are the targets and have no choice but to cooperate with the brokers orders. They only get a little portion of what the buyer is paying for the procedure as well. A live younger donor stretches the life expectancy by five years that’s why the market for the youth is booming.

In my personal response to this article I think it’s great idea that someone is informing the world of what’s happening. Before reading the passage, I had no idea people were being forced to give up their organs from smaller countries. I am sickened with the evil and desperation human kind after reading this. I wish to help bring a stop to organ trafficking but it is such a secretive/confidential situation. I’m left wondering is there anything I can do?

Something I liked that Nancy did in the text is how she broke up the parties involved in to different categories. For example, she has the sections sorted into categories like: The buyers, the sellers, the brokers, and the persuasion tactics used to manipulate the victim into selling one of their own organs. This makes it easier for me to break down the process and view all stances when it comes to learning about the brutal organ trade.  

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