Topic: Medical Black Markets

Delegation: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Delegate: Daniela Figueroa

History has shown time and time again the undeniable perseverance of human beings, people will

always be on the lookout for their interests, no matter the cost. This fairly simple concept has been seen

all around the world through the unfortunate rise of black markets. Markets are crucial for the wellbeing

of the people, but the over regulation of these have consistently lead to a volatile and destabilized market,

suffering from price controls, falling production, inefficient distribution, and rising corruption. All of

these effects hurt sellers and consumers alike, in the lookout to their interests, they are forced to transition

into informal markets, where they are capable of attaining products and services free of these constraints.

However, these black markets have expanded into the health sector, creating a barrier for citizens to attain

health services. The existence of black markets in the health sector occurs to have access to medical

professionals and to make illegal transactions in exchange of medicines or medical records. As humans,

we need medical assistance to guarantee our survival. It is widely known that in places of poverty,

medical facilities are scarce and the only solution is having black markets. Similarly, in developed

countries, trading organs is popular. However, these black markets lack regulation and only prove to be

detrimental to overall human development.

The United Kingdom possesses a universal health care system, allowing its citizens to easily

access health services, and thus making it responsible of helping countries with expanding black markets

face their problems. A main method to alleviating these problems is by allowing citizens to access

medical infrastructure, this is vital in order to construct a solid foundation around a healthcare system,

without access it is impossible to have a functioning system, this could be achieved through making
healthcare a public good, or by restructuring market incentives, with the purpose of creating an efficient

mix of private and public sellers. Additionally, as the world transitions to a technology-reliable landscape,

the protection of medical data will be extremely important. Putting in place more cybersecurity measures

will prevent the stealing and spread of counterfeit medical documents, allowing the black market to

shrink. By empowering official medical institutions, the market is incentivized to move towards formal

channels that promote official use of medical services, thus helping the fair trade of organs, the official

selling and buying of prescription drugs, and the overall medical industry.

Furthermore, to eliminate black markets or at least reduce them in a global manner, the

United Kingdom encourages the peaceful international cooperation to address its elimination. In

addition, it motivates other countries to focus on the elimination of organ trading by

implementing government agencies focused on attacking climate change. . In addition to this, the

United Kingdom also believes that an effective solution to the problem is to also address the

cyber black markets known as the deep web. Overall, to eradicate black markets from the face of

the earth, the international community has to put its strength on providing medical facilities and

accommodations to those in need.

References:

Black market bodies: Legalizing the sale of human organs could save lives. (2018, January 17).
Retrieved from https://futurism.com/sale-human-organ/

The state of the international organ trade: A provisional picture based on integration of available

information. (2011, March 04). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/

85/12/06-039370/en/

J. (2015, October 27). When Governments Offer Empty Health Care Promises, Black Markets

Deliver the Goods. Retrieved from https://reason.com/archives/2015/10/27/when-governments-

offer-empty-health-care

Freeze, D. (2018, April 17). Healthcare Security $65 Billion Market. Retrieved from https://

cybersecurityventures.com/healthcare-cybersecurity-report-2017/

Letter, T. P. (n.d.). The UK's medicines regulator says it is cracking down on the the illegal

diversion of prescription... Retrieved from https://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/mhra-

investigations-uncover-thriving-black-market-for-pharmaceuticals