Rich Dupe Bangladeshi Poor Into Giving Up Kidneys: Study

Some people just aren’t content waiting in line with everybody else.

Wealthy people are bypassing donor lists by duping poor people in Bangladesh into selling their organs, according to a recent paper in the Medical Anthropology Quarterly. The investigative paper, authored by anthropologist Monir Moniruzzaman, examined illegal organ trafficking in Bangladesh, relating the narratives of 33 victims who were tricked by organ buyers into having their kidneys extracted from their bodies. (h/t The Atlantic)

Newspaper classified ads promising compensation with minimal safety risks convinced poverty-stricken Bangladeshis to give up their kidneys, the paper found.

The high demand for organs and long waiting lists is in part what fuels this illegal trafficking. In the United States, over 100,000 people are waiting on a donor list for an organ right now, according to OrganDonor.gov. And though 79 Americans receive organ transplants daily, 18 people die everyday because of shortages.

Many of the Bangladeshis duped into selling their organs didn't even get the amount they were promised, according to the research paper. The average price advertised for a kidney was $1,500, but 81 percent of those surveyed by Moniruzzaman said they didn't receive the amount they were pledged, Moniruzzaman said in an interview with Live Science. One Bangladeshi boy, for example, received $1,000 less than what he was promised, Moniruzzan told Live Science.

The recipients of these kidneys span the globe, and trafficking isn’t limited to Bangladesh. Last year, a Canadian man testified before EU judges, telling them that he paid an Israeli citizen $105,000 to arrange a kidney operation after doctors had told him that getting a transplant in Canada might take up to 12 years of waiting, the AP reported.

Comments

[K August]

02:11 AM on 03/28/2012

Don't let the GOP ban stem cell research because of "moral/religious" views!
We're getting closer to not needing organ transplants!

"Stem Cells Show Promise For Repairing Damaged Hearts"

The promise of stem cell research just got a lot brighter.

There was some very good news from the world of medicine just a couple of weeks ago. For the first time, stem cells were injected into the hearts of humans who had suffered serious heart damage, and patients improved dramatically.

It appears that, as everyone hoped, the stem cells grew into new heart cells to replaced the damaged tissue. This is the promise of all stem cell research: to repair or replace damaged organs that otherwise would never recover.
In principle, we can someday use the same technique to replace damaged livers, kidneys, spinal cords, cartilege, and virtually all other tissues in the human body."

[Hanover Fiste]

02:09 AM on 03/28/2012

If your child was going to die and you had the money the temptation would be irresistible. This is nothing, selling ones soul is as old as recorded history, and there is nothing to indicate people have gotten any better.

[SueZbell]

10:48 PM on 03/27/2012

The rich can alway leave the country to bypass US laws--that may be why they don't seem to care if the US becomes a theocracy.

[TaxpayingVoter]

08:27 PM on 03/27/2012

I've been an organ donor since I was 18. I don't care what happens to them after I die. In fact, I would like them to find uses for all the rest of my body after I die, if they can.

I don't want anything left. I'll be done with it.

[somewhatodd]

04:19 PM on 03/27/2012

ah yes, the libertarians solution. bangladesh - ron paul's paradise.

[Lemmiwinks99]

09:25 PM on 03/27/2012

The bangladesh situation is a response to gov't regulation of the market. Black markets exist whenever gov't prohibits activity.

[somewhatodd]

09:42 PM on 03/27/2012

yeah, kidney buyers could cheat donors out of thier kidneys right here in the good ole usa if only the government would get out of the way.

[JasonWS]

11:19 AM on 03/27/2012

On of my neighbors has a sticker that says, "I swim relays, because someone shared their heart with me."

She's a transplant survivor, is recently retired, and lives every moment praising and thanking the unfortunate victim of a car accident who donated her heart and saved her life. She's had this heart for seven years now and shows the top half of her scar with pride. She advocates for donors, advocates for research, and best of all, she advocates for a continuation of this process.

She sees Cheney getting a heart transplant and says to me, "That's great, I'm glad someone saved his life. I can't wait until he does something worthy with what time he has left and helps someone else."

She's more generous than I am. I think our society has enough hearts, livers, kidneys and other organs within this nation's borders to provide for our own sick and injured. I do not think we should inflict our needs on the bodies of people outside of our borders. To do so would make us the predators we most certainly are trying to evolve away from.

[loki]

10:38 AM on 03/27/2012

soon it will be like Brazil where they were finding trash heaps with poor and street kids dead bodies stripped of their organs. The Super rich only see others are resources to improve their personal lives, nothing more than that. If they cant make them richer or better, they have no use at all to the Super rich.

[LHoney]

04:27 PM on 03/27/2012

Henry Kissinger's "useless eaters"

[stargazer13]

10:35 AM on 03/27/2012

Remember the movie coma ?

I left that movie theater thinking ??

#@!!&^%^*#$@!

[notdarkyet]

08:55 AM on 03/27/2012

Like oil, food, and water our bodies have become another commodity for the rich to harvest and profit from.

[wackette]

08:40 AM on 03/27/2012

Does anyone really believe that Cheney waited 20 mos. for his heart? And how much did that
cost the taxpayers? Personally, I'd roll over in my grave, if I found out that my heart had been
put into such a heartless person, like Dick Cheney.

[Ben Winslow]

09:27 AM on 03/27/2012

That is why I can't bring myself to donate. We are not all that far from Bangladesh.

[loki]

10:41 AM on 03/27/2012

I dont donate either. But my main reason was that I donate the most important part, and everyone else gets rich off of it. Thats wrong.
did you know that parts from one body can bring over 1 million dollars to the harvesters? That is just wrong.

[Capricious Capricorn]

08:18 AM on 03/27/2012

Should this surprise anyone?

[Durrrrrr]

07:45 AM on 03/27/2012

REGULATIONS in the US have created a black market (see prostitution and marijuana for parallel examples). Thank you liberals (I mean anti-choicers) for your draconian REGULATIONS.

I thought government couldn't tell me what I can and cannot do with my body? Oh you say that only holds if a uterus is involved. I see.

[HellBank]

08:07 AM on 03/27/2012

You have my permission to sell your organs. Doubt you'll get much for your brain however.

[Lemmiwinks99]

09:27 PM on 03/27/2012

Silly post. First they don't do brain transplants, second, he does not have permission to sell his organs since it is illegal to do so.

[Demidan]

08:42 AM on 03/27/2012

REGULATIONS?

Dumbest.
Post.
Ever!

[Durrrrrr]

11:59 AM on 03/27/2012

Except for the fact that markets would be more transparent and there would be a greater supply of human organ donations if it was legal to pay for them.

[Zariana]

06:30 AM on 03/27/2012

I suppose if you are evil enough to buy someone's organs, stiffing them for what you promised to pay wouldn't phase you.

[Lemmiwinks99]

09:28 PM on 03/27/2012

Why is it evil to offer something value for value? The stiffing is a direct result of the transaction being illegal.

[Zariana]

10:24 PM on 03/27/2012

A father selling his little girl into sexual slavery is value for value. Do you approve of that?

There are some things that should not be sold in cash transactions. Human beings--including body parts--should not be for sale.

[kanamartin]

03:51 AM on 03/28/2012

And what happens when this poor person(who usually don't eat healthy or very active) kidney goes out? They will only have 1, so do they wait on a donor list?

[ActaNonVerbaNow]

03:07 AM on 03/27/2012

Disgusting.

[The Contrary]

02:10 AM on 03/27/2012

There are great demands of human organs and servere shortage of them in America. As far as Republic'CONS' politicians are concerned, it's a free-enterprise and there should be no regulation on organs trafficking whatsover.

[loki]

10:43 AM on 03/27/2012

just like human trafficking

[Lemmiwinks99]

09:29 PM on 03/27/2012

Yeah, the republicans have put up sooo many bills calling for an open market in organs.