What is organ trafficking?

The Istanbul Declaration, a result of a a Summit Meeting of more than 150 representatives of scientific and medical bodies from around the world including government officials, social scientists, and ethicists, has defined organ trafficking as:

the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of living or
deceased persons or their organs by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability, or of the giving to, or the receiving by, a third party of payments or benefits to achieve the transfer of control over the potential donor, for the purpose of exploitation by the removal of organs for transplantation (6).

The Istanbul Declaration also defined the following:

Transplant commercialism is a policy or practice in which an organ is treated as a
commodity, including by being bought or sold or used for material gain.

Travel for transplantation is the movement of organs, donors, recipients or transplant
professionals across jurisdictional borders for transplantation purposes. Travel for
transplantation becomes transplant tourism if it involves organ trafficking and/or transplant commercialism or if the resources (organs, professionals and transplant centers) devoted to providing transplants to patients from outside a country undermine the country’s ability to provide transplant services for its own population.

What is known about the scope of organ trafficking?

The scope of organ trafficking, like other forms of trafficking, has been difficult to measure due to its clandestine nature. Yet, the World Health Organization estimates that approximately 10% of annual transplants worldwide involve commercial living donors (CLDs).

Who is targetted for a commercial living organ donation?