By M L Satyan

Bengaluru, Aug 30, 2022: Today human body can be considered a ‘treasury’. It is a living factory that can manufacture products that no laboratory can recreate. From kidneys to hair, to eggs, sperm and blood, many body parts can be sold through both legal and illegal avenues, and the dollar value increases with the amount of risk involved. Many people today sell or are forced to sell their vital organs for various reasons. The human organs have been reduced to mere commercial commodities.

All over the world, human organs too are being trafficked, sometimes with, and sometimes without, the consent of the ‘owner’. People are directly, or indirectly, being forced to sell their own organs for a price, often to agents, who make exorbitant profits in this business exploiting the poor and vulnerable. The organs can be acquired in many different and terrible ways. People may be kidnapped, killed and sold, especially children, for their organs. Other ways for the agents to procure the organs are through deception or coercion.

Prices for organs vary in the black market and obviously there is no official pricing guide. But, like all business transactions there are hidden costs and everyone wants to get their cut of the profits: the surgeon, the organ agent, and assistants. Organs are worth vast sums of money in the market, with hospitals regularly paying six figures for kidneys and hearts. There is a whole industry of agents creaming the profits and there is a considerable expense in administration, permits, transport and refrigeration.

The following body parts are being commercialised:
 Today blood donation has become a booming business. Blood donation camps are organized on various occasions and the collected blood is sold to blood banks, hospitals and agents for money.
 Plasma is not actually blood. It is the liquid that the red blood cells are suspended in. The human body replaces plasma faster than blood, so one can donate more often, up to twice a week. The going rate for plasma varies and some clinics pay more if we go frequently.
 Platelets are blood cells that help control and stop bleeding by forming scabs when we are injured. Platelets regenerate quickly meaning one can donate often. Compensation depends on one’s weight and how frequently one donates.
 Human hair is a valuable commodity for wig makers and probably one of the least painful ways to make buck off one’s body. In most cases one may sell at least 10 inches of hair and the pay scale varies depending on colour, thickness, length, ethnicity, and purity.
 ‘Rent-a-womb’ business is flourishing in India. Many legal, moral and ethical issues connected to the surrogacy have been brought forth. One eminent editor rightly said that in India ‘rent-a-womb’ and ‘rent-a-car’ are similar jobs and the surrogate mother’s mental, emotional and spiritual aspects have no place in this job.
 Sperm, Eggs and Urine are also profitable items in the human organ market.
 New born/young babies are trafficked/kidnapped as these babies fetch a high price in the human market.
 Modelling has become a desirable, attractive and lucrative career for the youth. Many of those who fail to establish themselves in the highly competitive field turn to an easier path – porn. Porn materials demand complete nudity from the modelling persons. Finally, what is sold is one’s own body.
 There is a network of doctors/surgeons, mortuary managers, persons who are in-charge of burial grounds, agents and organ-buying agencies. Unclaimed dead bodies, mostly from government hospitals and burial grounds, are sold for a good price and in this process many people benefit.

As per a study undertaken by an US based Medical Research agency, “Currently, the buying and selling of organs from either living or deceased donors is legally prohibited in many parts of the world in order both to prevent the commercialization of organs and to ensure some level of equity of access to organ transplantation.”

Further the study mentions: ‘Global transplant commercialism’ (practices and policies involving international trade in organs from living vendors, e.g., ‘transplant tourism’) is currently subjected to unprecedented criticism. In parallel, the debate around ‘local transplant commercialism’ (practices and policies that confine trade in organs from living vendors to national markets or economic unions) is heating up.”

“The current international campaign against global transplant commercialism is conducted by an ad hoc alliance between strange bedfellows, proponents of local transplant commercialism on the one hand and opponents of any transplant commercialism on the other. Disparities in the rigor of the respective ethical discourses, the expanding list of precedents of legitimized commerce in the human body, and the political economy of transplantation, all suggest that the former have the upper hand.”

At its 59th Session, the UN General Assembly discussed the trafficking of human organs in the context of transnational organized crime. It passed a resolution urging Member States to adopt measures to prevent, combat and punish the illicit removal of, and trafficking in, human organs.

In India the legislation called the Transplantation of Human Organ Act (THO) was passed in 1994 to streamline organ donation and transplantation activities. Despite the THO legislation, organ trade and kidney scandals are regularly reported in the Indian media.

Some valid questions need to be raised at this stage.
• Where is the world/human society heading towards?
• With this dangerous trend of human organ market, what will be the future of our children?
• In this booming human market scenario, where are the international and national human rights agencies whose primary duty is to protect human rights?
• What are the country’s leaders doing to curb this menace?
• Do they ensure that the laws are enforced strictly and the rights of every citizen are protected?
• What are the initiatives taken by religious leaders to address the burning issue of human organ market?
• Will the church-based organisations stop their fervent preaching on human dignity and get into some concrete actions that are needed urgently?

It is high time for all responsible citizens, groups, organizations and institutions to come together to discuss and find out long-term and effective preventive measures for the above problems. Let us try to save those who are drowning in the human organ market and restore their lost human dignity.