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Organ trafficking and transplant tourism
Interview with Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold, Rapporteur of Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee
This interview is copyright-free for publication by your media.
Strasbourg, 24 June 2003
Question: Organ trafficking and “transplant tourism” have hitherto been regarded as Asian and South American phenomena. Surely Europe is supposed to have been spared this problem?
Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold: Unfortunately that is not the case. For quite some time now there have been indications that such activities go on even in countries like Italy. The Council of Europe was the first international organisation to carry out any thorough investigations into this phenomenon in Europe. In so doing it has discovered that the main areas affected by the trade in human kidneys are the poorer regions of the former Soviet states. There are no accurate figures on the full extent of this illegal dealing, but such transactions do take place. Even in our own continent social hardship is driving individuals to sell off parts of their own bodies: this is a dreadful discovery.
Question: Is the illegal trade in organs set to take on the same proportions in Europe as in Asia and South America?
Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold: I am afraid according to statistics this is indeed liable to happen. Of 120 000 of dialysis patients in western Europe 40 000 are on the normal waiting lists for a transplant. They can currently expect to wait three years for an offer, and many patients with kidney disease die before they can receive a transplant. By 2010 the waiting period will have increased to 10 years. Furthermore, at the other end of the continent, there is no sign of a solution to the problems of mass unemployment and poverty in large tracts of eastern Europe. This is where the “market” is growing up for the criminal trade in organs.
Question: What can be done against organ trafficking, The situation in India shows that such transactions continue even if they are strictly prohibited by law.
Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold: Action must obviously be taken against transplant tourism in Europe by the police and the courts. However, in the final analysis criminal law is powerless: the only way to help is to eliminate poverty. People who have jobs and decent livelihoods are not going to sell their kidneys. The international community, particularly the better-off States, must intensify their economic support programmes in order to consolidate the east European economy. This is the only way to successfully fight organ trafficking.
Question: Why would people want to sell their kidneys for $ 3 000? Is the poverty that bad?
Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold: Our test model, Moldova, is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Unemployment officially stands at 50%, although the real figure is probably closer to 70%. The average monthly income is € 30. In rural areas of the country, where the organ donors are recruited, people barely manage to survive. Agriculture is underdeveloped. $ 3000 corresponds to ten years’ wages, an absolute fortune. The money is often used to support whole families. The phenomenon of young men selling their kidneys is common knowledge, but it is a taboo subject: no one will talk about it. The young men are picked up discreetly after nightfall. In fact, a number of organ donors insisted that they would only speak to us outside their villages.
Question: Who reaps the benefits from such trafficking? How do people get drawn into this kind of illegal trade?
Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold: Organised crime is behind all these doings. People engage in such transactions wherever hefty profits are to be had, and this goes for organ trafficking too. You only need to look at the figures: on the one hand, young men in eastern Europe receive about $ 3 000 for a kidney, and on the other wealthy patients in the west often pay between $ 150 000 and $ 250 000 for a kidney transplant. These are gigantic profit margins. The very professional surgeons who carry out the operations in high-tech clinics also stand to gain from this “business”.
Question: How are the transactions concluded?
Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold: We used Moldova as a practical example for our investigations. Potential kidney donors in this country are approached by so-called “front persons”, often women. They then head off in a car or a plane to Turkey, where the young men are looked after for a few days or weeks pending the results of blood testing. In fact these tests are often rather cursory. Then the Moldovans are taken to a private clinic or rented medical centres, where the operations are carried out: the organ is transplanted into the waiting patient immediately after its removal. In exceptional cases the donor and recipient are introduced to each other. Many of the patients are from Israel, because the Israeli social security system pays for transplant operations abroad, no questions asked. But the clientele also includes wealthy patients from Russia and the Arab countries. German and Austrian kidney sufferers also allegedly travel to Turkey for such purposes.
Question: The transplant operations are highly professional. Doesn’t this mean that the east Europeans are also well cared for after the removal of the kidneys?
Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold: Unfortunately not, and this is perhaps the most scandalous aspect. These people are sent back home after a few days’ cursory treatment. And at home there is virtually no medical follow-up available, because the health system in rural areas has collapsed de facto. The scars usually heal up badly, nutrition is inadequate, and many of the men have to return immediately to hard labour in the fields. In medical terms, these people are often marked for life.
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