World Health Organization

Illicit Organ Trafficking and the Black Market for

Human Body Parts
Note to the Committee
September 2009
Dear Delegates,
Thank you for attending the 25th Annual St. Johns Model United Nations
Conference and welcome to the World Health Organization.
The World Health Organization was designed to coordinate authority on
international public health. There are 193 member states and it is headquartered in
Geneva, Switzerland.
In this committee, we will be discussing the problem of illegal organ trafficking
and the sale of human body parts on the Black Market. It is an issue that plagues
countless countries over the globe, and needs to be stopped. Please read the attached
briefing paper to familiarize with this issue. Also, be sure to know your countrys policy
and where they stand on this issue. Please do additional research on your own.
If you have any questions or concerns email me at jackkod@gmail.com. I look
forward to seeing all of you on conference day.
Jack ODay

Member States
Afghanistan, Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, China, Egypt, Haiti, Honduras, India, Italy,
Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar,
Pakistan, Peru, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore,
South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Statement of the Problem

With hundreds of thousands of people around the world needing organ transplants
every year, the list for donors seems short and the wait long. Many people in this
situation feel like they have nowhere to turn. They look for the easy way out, and
usually seek out the dangerous underground world of the illegal organ trade. There is an
intricate underground economy based solely on the removal, purchase, and transfer of
human organs. While this practice is illegal, legislation varies from country to country.
Many organ traffickers disguise their illegal activities as medical tourism, a legal and
widespread way of getting medical care. The term medical tourism is defined as,
international travel for the sole purpose of receiving medical care. Residents of first
world countries usually travel to third world countries to get it, where the surgeries are
cheaper and easier to come by.

In the past 20 years, organ transplants have become much more prevalent. This is
due in part because of the new drugs being used and advancement in medical technology.
Most first world countries around the world only take organ donations from volunteers.
With less and less people willing to give organs to those outside of their families, the
waiting lists for organs seem endless. There are over 100,000 patients in need of healthy
organs in the United States alone, and there are usually only about 20,000 donors
annually.2 Many patients who are waiting for a transplant are in a situation that is life or
death (if they are not, they become disillusioned by doctors in todays world and they
think that their situation is life or death). They are then forced to turn to the black market
for illegal organs. The most popular places for illegal organ transplants and trafficking
1
2

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0609/p01s03-wogi.html
http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featscheperhughes.htm

are India, Peru, and Kenya. Three of the worlds largest slums are located in these
countries. The most impoverished areas where many of the donors come from are
Dharavi, referred to as Asias largest slum.3 It is an area of 2.5 miles located in a
suburb of Mumbai where over one million people are packed in.4 Africas most
concentrated number of organ donors who sell their body to the underground economy
comes from Kibera, a slum in central Nairobi, Kenya. It is Africas largest slum and is
home to over one million people as well. The population of Mexicos largest slum is four
times that of both Kibera and Dharavi, with over 4 million people.
The residents of these lost cities live in absolutely deplorable conditions. These
areas of major metropolitan areas are filled with disease, crime, and pollution. Open
sewers run down the center of major streets in these areas, and malnutrition is a major
problem. The economies of all of these areas are dominated by agriculture, fishing,
pottery, and textile industries. With almost no revenue created, inhabitants are always
looking for an easy way to make money. Many get mixed up with alcohol and narcotics
smuggling, and many donate their organs to the black market.

History of the Problem

Most illegal organ sales are conducted in third world countries, mainly in the
slums mentioned before. With illegal organ trafficking, the problems start with the initial
deal between trafficker and donor. The trafficker will tell the donor that he will pay a
certain price for the organ, and then tell the donor that he will fly him to a technologically
advanced hospital in a third world country. The most popular organ that is trafficked is
3

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/06/dharavi_slum/html/dharavi_slum_intro.st
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/flash/page/0,,2025270,00.html

the kidney. Since humans only need one to function, donors view this as an opportunity
to make easy money. The donors think that the operations will go on without a hitch, and
that they will be recovering in a hospital in the United States or Canada. The donors
usually get some sort of background information about the person that will be receiving
their organ, and also when they will be paid. On the Black Market, a kidney usually goes
for ten thousand United States dollars. The most common situation experienced by
donors is not getting paid in full for their organs. The trafficker will usually tell them
right before their scheduled operation that they have a certain defect that prohibits them
from getting the full amount they were promised. In most cases, they are too far into the
agreement, and have no way of getting out of the donation.
The health risks posed by the illegal organ trade are immense. Not only the donor
and recipient are in danger, but everyone involved in the process. The mules, or carriers
of the organs, are those most in danger who do not have any surgical procedures
performed on them. In countries such as Kenya and India, the mules often wont wear
gloves or take any real care of the organs being transported. To get them onto airplanes,
they will wrap them in plastic and tape them to their stomachs, or will place them in
hollowed out objects such as basketballs or coconuts. The organs are not stored at the
temperatures recommended by the American Academy of Surgeons, and often end up
with some sort of defect upon arrival in the United States or another first world country. 5
With these underground organ transplants, the recipients are in immense danger if
the organs are not stored and transported properly. As with any organ transplant, the list
of possible side effects is quite large. Patients might experience some short-term side
effects such as nausea, diarrhea, mood swings, anemia, arthritis, and tremors. If the
5

http://www.facs.org/organsmuggling/2323

organ picks up a disease in transport, the recipient will also be at risk of that disease.
There is always the chance that the patient will reject the organ, and will die as a result.
With organs obtained illicitly, the risk for rejection is almost four times as high. 6
The person in most danger in this entire process is the donor. People who are
untrained in medicine, and largely uneducated in general, carry many of these operations
out. The operations are usually carried in crude settings with little or no anesthesia and
unhygienic instruments. Donors are almost never given post-operative care and most
patients are released the day of or the day after the surgery. Many of the donors also
contract diseases because of the unsanitary conditions, tools, and practices. 7

Past Actions
Not much has been done to control health threats posed by organ trafficking.
Other general assemblies and specialized committees within the United Nations have
tried to curb this problem. They mainly focus on the socioeconomic effects of the trade
and the class struggles between the donors and the traffickers. Other committees also
deal with the ethics of the entire trade, and whether or not donors should be allowed to
give their organs away for a price.
Different countries have taken some steps to try to control the black market for
human organs and its health risks. India, with one of the most concentrated number of
organ-sellers, has convicted over 1,500 organ traffickers within the last 20 years.
These traffickers have been convicted of health crimes against humanity. Organ
6
7

http://www.geocities.com/organdonate/AAACh4OrganRejection.html
http://www.newu.uci.edu/main/article?slug=when_altruism_doesnt_sell172

traffickers within the United States have been tried and convicted of practicing medicine
without a license, patient endangerment, denying post-operative care, and the use of
unsanitary tools when conducting a surgery.
There are also a number of anti-trafficking groups within the international
community trying to contain and eventually end this problem. The Transplantation
Society, the only international coalition working specifically against the trafficking and
sale of human organs, has been working to end the trade completely. This group also
specifically deals with the health risks brought by organ trafficking. They seek recipient
and donor justice, and provide legal assistance to try to bring the surgeons who perform
these operations to justice.

Bloc Positions
European Union
Most members of the European Union have strong policies against the illegal trade and
transplantation of organs. Countries without such policies include Bulgaria, Ireland,
Lithuania and Malta. The US has laws in place prohibiting the sale of organs and one
state, Wisconsin, provides tax breaks for living donors. The Organ Donation and
Recovery Improvement Act allows the federal government to reimburse living donors
and hopes to increase the donation rate in the country.
The United States of America
The United States has many laws and statutes prohibiting the sale of human organs.
There are heavy penalties attached to being caught with an illegally obtained organ,

including up to 25 years in jail. The American College of Surgeons also advises the
United States Federal Government in dealing with the smugglers caught with the organs.
The United Kingdom
Like the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland has heavy penalties and jail time attached to the trade. There are not as many
anti-smuggling organizations as in the United States, but there are a few groups working
to combat this trade.
Former Communist Nations and Soviet Satellite States
Many EU members have laws banning the trade. Moldova leads as one of the top three
nations harboring the trade. The government has attempted to institute legislation to curb
the trade but success has been limited. Currently, organ farms are a commonality across
the country and the trade is increasing to extreme rates.

African Nations
Illegal trade and trafficking are a growing problem in the region. Kenya, Egypt, South
Africa are main hubs of the trade. Although some laws are in place to prevent the trade,
the high levels of poverty and inequality force people to go against these laws and
participate in the trade.

The Middle East

Many people rely on illegal organ trade because of faulty government systems and long
waiting times. There are high rates of medical tourism from wealthy Middle Easterners to
South Asia to acquire organs.

Latin American Nations

Brazil, a current source of trade, has banned the trade and set high fines and jail times of
3-8 years. To combat the high waitlists worldwide, Brazil is attempting to increase their
supply by mandating that each adult be a donor except under special conditions.

Asia
As the current source of much of the illegal trade, government policies differ greatly
between the countries. Japan and other advanced industrialized nations have strong
policies against the trade, but they are not necessarily highly effective. China is a major
source of contention because the government sells the organs of executed prisoners if
their bodies are not immediately claimed. Southeast Asia is a key hub for the trade, due to
poverty. India used to allow the trade but has instituted laws to prohibit it. Medical
tourism is a major problem in this area, as wealthy foreigners come to acquire organs.
China and the Russian Federation
These two countries dont have many specific laws governing this trade. The
governments of these nations are working to combat this problem, but the programs are
still either being conceptualized or in their infant stage.