Thailand

Topic: Illegal Organ Trafficking

By: Simone Lee and Angeline Garcia
Good Afternoon honorable chair and esteemed delegates today we are gathered to discuss the
gruesome yet profitable issue of illegal organ trafficking.
Issue and Position
Organ trafficking is a major crime that occurs in mainly two categories. Some cases
involve where the traffickers force or trick victims into donating an organ. The other cases
involve where those in which donors agree, formally or informally, to sell an organ and end up
being cheated or underpaid by brokers or duplicitous doctors. The two main subsets : one
involves moving the recipient to another country for the operation while the second involves
moving both the donor and the recipient to a different country. As for potential organ sources
would include live donors, deceased donors, and executed prisoners. Trafficking in organ trade is
an organized crime, involving a host of offenders. The recruiter who identifies the vulnerable
person, the transporter, the staff of the hospital/ clinic and other medical centers, the medical
professionals, the middlemen and contractors, the buyers, and the banks where organs are stored
are all involved.
Detailed Background Information
Thailand believes that organ trafficking began because of the shortage of organ donors
(specifically kidney, liver, lungs, heart and eye transplant donors) and the long waiting list to
receive an organ transplant, which have both ignited a major problem in this country. And
because of the fact that Thailand is now the medical tourism capital of the world there is growing
concern that this is fueling a rise in illegal transplant tourism. This issue relates to the
international community because over 19 million foreign medical tourists travel to Thailand
every year for medical procedures, which means that illegal organ trafficking not only affects
citizens of Thailand, but people from all over the world as well. This is of international concern
because organ trafficking in Thailand could soon spread to other countries and even attract an
increased number of illegal organ donors to the country, which could pose as a major issue in
other countries on an international scale. As of now Thailand has not implemented major actions
taken to stop illegal organ trafficking, however this will soon change because of the recent
increase of illegal organ trafficking. As a result of illegal organ trafficking in Thailand many
smaller problems have arouse to Thailands attention, such as doctors who solely work for the
purpose of transplanting illegal organs, and individuals that embezzle low income organ donors
by saying that they will give them a much larger sum of money than they actually receive, which
leaves the donor in a sickly condition with little or no money to help them survive. And again no
action has been previously set in place to address these issues but this will soon change.
Proposed Solutions Regarding the Issue
Thailand believes that the government is currently fully aware of the issue of illegal organ
trafficking in this country, and has the ability and obligation to implement action to stop this
horrendous crime. In the past Thailand has not taken action because the chance that illegal organ
trafficking could increase in Thailand was low, however in recent times this is not the case and
Thailand hopes to obtain support to protect the victims of this illegal crime and put laws and
restrictions in place to end this once and for all.

Works Cited

1. Eden, Caroline. "The Rise of Medical Tourism in Bangkok." BBC Travel. BBC, 4 Sept. 2012.
Web. 6 Jan. 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20120828-the-rise-of-medical-tourism-inbangkok>.
2. "Organ Trafficking Increase in Thailand."
ABC News. ABC, 31 Oct. 2014.
Web. 6 Jan. 2015. <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-31/organ-trafficking-increase-inthailand/5858966>.
3. Vaknin, Sam. "Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism in Eastern Europe." Organ
Trafficking and Transplant Tourism in Eastern Europe. United Press International (UPI), 7 Mar.
2005. Web. 8 Jan. 2015. <http://samvak.tripod.com/brief-organ01.html>.
4. Wangkiat, Paritta. "Doctors Cleared in Organ Harvesting Scam."Http://www.bangkokpost.com.
The Post Publishing, 10 Nov. 2014. Web. 6 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/442381/doctors-cleared-in-organ-harvestingscam>.
5."Trafficking for Organ Trade." Trafficking for Organ Trade. Web. 8 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/about/trafficking-for-organ-trade.html