The progress in medical sciences has opened multiple dimensions for humanity around the globe, including human organ transplantation. Over the previous years, this development has increased human organ demands for several benefits. These organs can be acquired from living humans or deceased personals depending upon requirements. But an organ acquired from the living human body poses numerous advantages and is in high demand (Black et al., 2018). To reap these benefits, a number of people desire to acquire the required organs on priority without delay or wait. Such a hurry and anxious desire create scarcity concerning human organs, ultimately leading to several problems. These may include kidnapping, illegal human trafficking across continental borders, monetary disputes, increased crime rates, etc. The most significant among these problems is the trafficking of human organs related to the trade, sale and donation of human organs. However, this research paper will explore human organ trafficking with its motives, devising a comprehensive proposal to restrain this evil with a justification in a logical and cost-affected manner.
Organ Trafficking – The Most Significant Problem:
Organ trafficking abuses pose numerous dangers to donors’ lives, as in most cases, forceful acquiring or monetary proposals may lead to severe problems. It is usually considered as transporting a person’s organs through trade channels using coercive means. Therefore it is not legalized by most of the concerned authorities around the globe (Gonzalez et al., 2020). In addition, most cases may lead to death because the human body’s reaction after such change is not predictable. Sometimes, receivers or donors may embrace death during the transplantation process. Due to such a massive list of losses due to organ trafficking, it is considered the most significant problem.
Motives of Human Organ Trafficking:
It is pertinent to identify the motives of human organ trafficking to understand the hidden perspectives of the said issue. In almost all countries, organ failure has led to severe health issues for numerous people. Due to a shortage of donors, these patients must wait for a long time. Some of them may be unable to find a suitable donor or appropriate health facilities and embrace deaths in this wait. So such chasm between supply and demand around the globe paves human organ trafficking. Such practices have become a trade chain for selling or donating human organs where one life is saved by rupturing another life to earn money.
Similarly, another motive is the absence of suitable health facilities and infrastructure in several parts of the world, especially developing countries. It forces people to adopt inappropriate means. In addition, the required rules, regulations and laws are not formulated to tackle this disparity in many countries. So the absence of a legal framework becomes a motive for human organ trafficking. Other than that, various social, cultural or religious hindrances may lead to such circumstances by motivating a chunk of the population to adopt such illegal sale, trade or donation of human organs.
Why Human Organ Trafficking is a Problem:
In the present age of modernity, human organ trafficking is a challenge. It magnifies with the crooked and deceptive practices of medical professionals, various brokers, human smugglers and relatives of patients for financial benefits. These stakeholders have massively increased the illegal sale, trade or donation of human organs worldwide. They take advantage of both sides to earn massive financial gains: living or deceased donors or desperate patients (Columb, 2020). Additionally, such a problem may breed other issues, especially where the affected are innocent people, including children and women. Such donation or sale of organs has nothing to do with the financial improvement of donors, as most of the monetary benefits rest with brokers or agents. In such cases, the affected donors have no legal access to any legal forum due to the involvement of criminal elements.
Moreover, a colossal chunk of donors belong to an impoverished class, and after donation, they are deprived of financial benefits. In most cases, donors engaged in organ sales would not be able to get proper medical treatment and facilities after a donation of organs. As a result, they face complex health issues which amplify their financial disparities. They sell organs for money, but due to health issues, they mostly fall into debt (Rawat et al., 2022).
Furthermore, various countries have tried to adopt it legally under constitutional jurisdiction, but the black market is nearly impossible to regulate. As most brokers or smugglers go for killing personals to attain organs to gain colossal money. In addition, organ trafficking is unethical and a violation of human dignity. Most brokers in this context have links or parts of organized criminal mafias.
Organ Trafficking – under the Blanket of Altruism:
Altruism can be defined as any action executed for the well-being of humans (Dahl & Paulus, 2019). In this context, organ transplantation has coincided with human welfare and health prosperity, according to some experts. They usually built analogical relation of organ transplantation with blood donation in the hour of need to save a life. Undoubtedly, organs can be donated to save a life, and modern medical science has developed organ transplantation. But organ trafficking by using force, exploiting poor mobs, using coercive means and using illegal channels has no moral, ethical, legal or social grounds. So having some benefits, organ trade, sale or donation cannot be covered under the blanket of altruism unless it would not have a legal basis.
So, the traffickers work in collaboration with various stakeholders, including health professionals. Their greater collaboration has increased the magnitude of organ trafficking around the globe, which makes organ trafficking the most significant problem.
Proposal – Series of proposed Actions:
Undoubtedly, donating, trading or selling human organs has improved human life and saved many lives, but it poses massive challenges due to human organ trafficking. The trafficking of human organs revolves around illegal and unethical practices, which increases its challenges manifold. However, an outlined solution may help the affected and vulnerable masses around the globe. This proposal includes various ways and approaches to relinquish donors’ and receivers’ life and health risks.
The first approach is to regulate the health sector by equipping capable and skilled professional staff to execute such transplantation. In addition, the health infrastructure must be adorned with the necessary equipment and machinery to ensure a safe process. Secondly, these professionals must be aware of the respective laws and regulations. These professionals should have instant access to law enforcement agencies to handle dangerous or illegal situations. Thirdly, the health professional must be bound to estimate fully whether or not the receiver has a real need for transplantation. This way, the sale can be reduced, and health professionals would not be allowed to execute the process for money’s sake.
Other than health professionals, law enforcement agencies, along with police, should identify human organ trafficking in collaboration and devise support structures to facilitate victims. The stakeholders to control this menace should coordinate and collaborate in a highly professional manner based on intelligence services. In addition, on the part of the government, it is pertinent to formulate policies, rules and regulations to curb this debacle. For efficient legislation, it is imperative to take all the stakeholders on board, including the brokers or agents, to address their problems. These laws should target hospitals, health professionals, brokers, donors and receivers with strong coordination and collaboration. Similarly, the regulations must be made to take the consent of donors lawfully in the form of a legal contract to secure donors’ economic and health rights.
Moreover, modern technology and medical advances are mandatory to develop human organs to relinquish the scarcity and shortage of organs. In this context, the legislation must be correlated with the masses’ ethical, cultural and religious beliefs.
Justification for the Proposal:
Undoubtedly, the sale, trade or donation activity of human organs has increased sky heights which imposes bad practices due to the lust of multiple stakeholders. So adopting eminent measures can curtail this evil in the bud. The legislation of the sale, trade, or donation of human organs may revolute this practice around the globe. Meanwhile, such suggestions may improve professional and business spirit among health professionals, brokers and agents, which ultimately lessen this illegality worldwide. In this context, the above-said proposal is justified as it not only advocates but assures the individual right of all stakeholders. Especially the most vulnerable and suffering entity is the donor, which has proposed all legal, moral, and monetary rights. By following the above proposal, the donors will donate their organs by their consent without any coercive means.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it can be inferred that the sale trade or donation of human organs has become a necessity, and human organ trafficking has emerged as a heinous crime worldwide. Human organ trafficking is a significant problem; the most affected are the donors who may lose their health and lives. Traffickers are playing havoc in this context. So, there is a dire need to devise a proposal to control this black market evil. For this reason, legislation of the sale, trade and donation of human organs, collaboration of law enforcement agencies officials, training of health professionals and securing donors’ rights are the activities that can be proposed for a better future.
Reference
Black, C. K., Termanini, K. M., Aguirre, O., Hawksworth, J. S., & Sosin, M. (2018). Solid organ transplantation in the 21st century. Annals of translational medicine, 6(20).
Columb, S. (2020). Trading Life: Organ Trafficking, Illicit Networks, and Exploitation. Stanford University Press.
Dahl, A., & Paulus, M. (2019). From interest to obligation: The gradual development of human altruism. Child Development Perspectives, 13(1), 10-14.
Gonzalez, J., Garijo, I., & Sanchez, A. (2020). Organ trafficking and migration: A bibliometric analysis of an untold story. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(9), 3204.
Rawat, R., Garg, B., Mahor, V., Telang, S., Pachlasiya, K., & Chouhan, M. (2022). Organ trafficking on the dark web—the data security and privacy concern in healthcare systems. Internet of Healthcare Things: Machine Learning for Security and Privacy, 189-216.
