What can someone do to earn 2,500 dollars in a third world country? Join the Mafia, become a contract killer, sell their possessions, sell yourself into slavery, or sell one of your organs. None of these are good decisions but which one is ultimately the one that most people of lesser fortune choose? The brutal truth is that a large group of people are choosing to sell one of their kidneys to help their family pay the bills, keep from starving or stay alive.
Just recently the human organ trade thrived in Pakistan. Pakistan was once the second largest location for kidney transplants and trading of organs. There was once a hospital that did up to 500 transplants per year located near a shopping mall and the airport. The Pakistani people who donated their organs did so “to settle debts, or pay for the marriage of a daughter or sister” they were mostly donating their organs to westerners like US citizens. However the laws changed in 2008 and it is now illegal to sell organs in Pakistan. (Matt Wade) The new laws that are now in place, in Pakistan, allow transplants only from family members and or foreigners if there donor is form a country other than Pakistan. (Wade) The amount of transplants has gone from 500 to about 10. Now some people may think that this is a bad thing for people who need organs but it is much better for the people in Pakistan. The citizens of Pakistan are now much healthier because they have no option to sell their parts. This brings up the question of who is better off the donor or the donee or are they both happy.
Before we get too much into the story lets understand the biology. Basically a kidney transplant is needed when a person’s blood is not being filtered efficiently enough to keep you healthy. If your kidney cannot do this you have a failed kidney and need either dialysis (machine filtering) or a kidney transplant. You can acquire a kidney transplant in two ways either you get put onto a waiting list to receive a kidney from a cadaver or you can find a living donor.
The last commodity post human ethics and the global traffic in fresh organs by Nancy Scheper-Hughes introduces the hardships and ethical dilemmas faced by people who need to be a part of the fresh organ trade. Before we get into the fresh organ trade today let me enlighten on the history that Nancy has bestowed upon me. Organ transplants were once based on medical ethics and responsibility. The doctors “owe his loyalties to the patient alone as if society… did not exist.”(Scheper-Hughes: 146) Nowadays the ethical boundaries of what is right and acceptable have changed. What is more important to save your life and hurt another life, or to let your own life go? There was once an age and type of person that was allowed a transplant because of the ability of the patient to live. Nowadays 70 year old people can acquire organs from teenagers.
What makes the black market trade possible? The organ trade is fueled by a dual waiting list one formed by sickness the other by misery” (Scheper-Hughes:148) the dual system is similar to the fractioned blood system we were exposed to in the book tissues economies. Paid donors and free donation the two ideas that split the world and the heart of all of our problems. The organ trade is just another aspect of the economies of the body
Where do these donors come from? They come from every place on earth. There is a large donor pool in South Asia, South America, eastern European countries. It has been suggested that many of these organs come from refugees, POWs; AWOL soldiers, and the homeless. On the other side of the equation the receiver is present. The term Scheper-Hughes uses to describe the trafficking on people into the donee’s country is Transplant tourism. Transplant tourism is a term used by many that describes the travel of the recipient to these disclosed locations to accept organs. Transplant tourism has made many of these off the map countries and destinations hot spots for affluent sick people. This type of tourism had made many countries leave the 3rd world and improve life for the people around like the Pakistani people.
How much does it cost? It costs about 100,000 to 200,000 dollars for a whole operation from start to finish. The costs incurred with this illegal transaction are numerous. The costs are usually something like buying passports, finding a perfect match, buying fake identities, renting operating rooms, and getting all kinds of reservations. The fresh organ trade is very profitable for middle men and traffickers but the donor only gets a small fraction of this six figure number. The amount that each person gets ranges from 1,200-3,000 dollars.
What happens to these people who donate their organs and the people associated with the trade? It seems that these people who once sold their organs to get ahead in the world are often worse off than they were in the beginning. For some it is the end of their life. Men who have sold their organs are shunned by their communities and cannot usually find work because employers do not want workers who are not as strong because of their missing parts. Doctors also get caught up in the negative effects. Doctors get sucked into the trade deeper then they usually started out to be. They first agree to do these transplants then find themselves helping find donors, making reservations and being much more involved in the illegal aspects of this market. Good intentioned people are becoming black market traffickers.
All countries should take after Pakistan. We should all adopt these laws on organ transplant. People should not have to sell their organs to help pay for bills. In every case that I have found the outcome is less than desirable. The donor is never able to recover fully or hold a respectable job in a physically demanding job. The middle men make money preying on vulnerable people who have no idea the implications of their decisions and the receiver having to take part in this unethical trade. I will end with this quote by Nancy Scheper-Hughes “while many individuals have benefitted enormously from the ability to get the organs they need, the violence associated with many of these new transactions gives reason to pause. Are we witnessing the development of biosocialty or the growth of a widespread biosciopathy?”(164)

Matching [Online Image] Available http://www.cpmc.org/images/kidney/topics/paired_donation.jpg , January 31, 2010
Scheper-Hughes, N. (2006). The Last commodity: post-human ethics and the global traffic in "fresh" organs.
Wade, Matt. (2008, May 12). Dying days for Pakistans kidney tourist trade. The Age, Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/dying-days-for-pakistans-kidney-tourist-trade/2008/05/11/1210444240320.html&usg=__ykk3oA_CwJFODsGcT0UGtbJy3xE=