STATEMENT OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SUMMIT ON ORGAN TRAFFICKING AND TRANSPLANT TOURISM (2017)

Résumé

Poverty, unemployment, and the lack of socioeconomic
opportunities are factors that make persons vulnerable to
organ trafficking and human trafficking for the purpose
of organ removal. Destitute individuals are victimized in
schemes of organ trafficking when induced to sell their
organs in a desperate search for a better life. Similarly,
desperate are the patients who are willing to pay large
amounts and travel to foreign destinations as transplant
tourists to obtain an organ that may keep them alive---
oblivious of the short and long-term health consequences
of commercial transplantation. Unscrupulous brokers
and health care professionals make organ trafficking
possible, disregarding the dignity of human beings. The
operative procedures are performed in unauthorized
facilities that clandestinely serve transplant tourists. But
organ trafficking can also occur at legitimate facilities,
in situations where individuals who are willing to sell
their organs present themselves to transplant centers
as a relative or altruistic friend of the recipient. The
media have made an important contribution to public
understanding in highlighting the plight of trafficked
individuals by publishing their independent investigations of transplant-related crimes and corrupt healthcare
professionals and unregulated facilities.