Organ harvesting
Encyclopedia
Organ harvesting refers to the removal, preservation and use of human organs and tissue from the bodies of the recently deceased to be used in surgical transplants on the living. Though mired in ethical debate and heavily regulated, organ donation in the United States has largely become an accepted medical practice.

Historically there has been contention about the legality and morality regarding organ harvesting. One of the earliest recorded examples of organ theft are the Burke and Hare murders in Edinburgh in 1828, where the victims bodies were to be used as cadavers in medical schools and the copycat London burkers
London Burkers
The London Burkers were a group of body snatchers, operating in London, who apparently modelled their activities on those of the notorious Burke and Hare...

 in London in 1831. The modern view of organ harvesting is due in part to the more than 105,000 people on the waiting list for solid organ transplants. Experts suggest that each of us could save or help as many as fifty people by being an organ and tissue donor.

A main reason for organ harvesting is to do with the extreme difficulty with which organs can be preserved postmortem, usually requiring a brain dead
Brain death
Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. It should not be confused with a persistent vegetative state...

 but still functionally alive donor, and the long waiting lists for available organs. Historically organ harvesting did not occur in an organized manner: the practice was occasionally advanced as a theory into mysterious disappearances or murders, and is then advanced by sensationalist news reports, followed by word-of-mouth promotion as an urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

 in which the practice is linked with a nefarious underground network of organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

, and also promoted in horror movies and thriller movies. The United Nations, working with the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

, has released a detailed study of the fact and the fictions surrounding organ theft.

Organ theft events

Organ harvesting being a general fiction, however, has not stopped some real-world entities from some larger organizations and governments from pursuing the practice for political or tactical reasons. In The Hunt: Me and War criminals, Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in August...

 claims that Kosovo Albanians smuggled human organs of kidnapped Serbs
Kosovo organ theft
The Kosovo organ theft/trafficking or Serbian Organ Harvesting is an alleged atrocity of organ theft and killing of 300 ethnic Serbs during and after the Kosovo War in 1999, committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army.The first allegations appeared in the media with The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals,...

 after the Kosovo war
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...

 ended in 1999. The EU rule-of-law mission uncovered no evidence to back these claims up while no evidence was presented by the Serbian government.

It has been confirmed by news sources that the organs of a number of death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

 prisoners in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 were, at least at one point, taken for transplant after their executions, on a for-profit basis, for both foreign nationals and Chinese nationals; it was unclear whether the prisoners had given their permission to have their organs harvested after death. The Chinese justice system is alleged to work very quickly for those sentenced to death, not allowing significant time for appeals, which then led to allegations that the entire justice system has been corrupted by a government approved system of organ theft. Until 2006 the Chinese government did not have a specific law in place outlawing the acquisition of organs without express consent; now such a law exists, but even with this new statute, other conflicting statutes remain, such as that which allows Chinese state prisons to use prisoners in whatever way that prison deems beneficial to the State. Meanwhile, in July 2006, former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour
David Kilgour
David Kilgour, PC is a former Canadian politician.Kilgour graduated from the University of Manitoba in economics in 1962 and the University of Toronto law school in 1966. From crown attorney in northern Alberta to Canadian Cabinet minister, Kilgour ended his 27 year tenure in the Canadian House of...

 and Human Rights Lawyer David Matas
David Matas
David Matas is the senior legal counsel of B'nai Brith Canada. He has maintained a private practice in refugee, immigration and human rights law since 1979. He has published various books and manuscripts and currently resides in Winnipeg....

 published a controversial report concluding that "...large numbers of Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...

 practitioners are victims of systematic organ harvesting, whilst still alive...".

Organ stealing is also know to occur in Budapest

In December 2009, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 admitted that, in the 1980s and 1990s, there had been organ harvesting of skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from dead bodies of Israeli soldiers, citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute
Abu Kabir Forensic Institute
L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine also known as Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, is an Israeli forensic research laboratory located in the Abu Kabir neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel.-History:...

 without the permission from relatives. The revelation was a consequence of the Aftonbladet-Israel controversy. Israel states that the institute in question ended such practice sometime around the year 2000.

On 6 August 2010, the Ukraine police arrested 12 people, some of them Israeli, in Ukraine on suspicion of selling human organs.

Organ sale

Although illegal in most countries, the sale of organs is common. Accurate statistics are hard to come by, but in March 2007, one estimate was that 5 to 10% of the world's kidney transplants involved compensation. Although many reports that this trade has involved coercion or kidnapping (thus becoming organ theft) have turned out to be just rumors, some cases have involved theft, for example the 2008 kidney ring
Gurgaon kidney scandal
The multi-billion rupee Gurgaon kidney scandal came to light in January 2008 when police arrested several people for running a kidney transplant racket in Gurgaon, an industrial township near New Delhi, India...

 run by doctor Amit Kumar in India.

Examples in fiction

  • Organlegging
    Organlegging
    Organlegging is the name of a fictional crime in the Known Space universe created by Larry Niven. It is the illicit trade of black market human organs for transplant...

     (a reference to bootlegging
    Rum-running
    Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...

    ) is a theme in several of Larry Niven
    Larry Niven
    Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...

    's Known Space
    Known Space
    Known Space is the fictional setting of some dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off anthologies sub-series....

     series.

  • The post-apocalyptic film Repo! The Genetic Opera
    Repo! The Genetic Opera
    Repo! The Genetic Opera is a 2008 horror-rock opera musical film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. The film is based on a play written and composed by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich....

    deals with the concept of organ theft being legalized, where assassins known as Repo men kill people for their organs when they fail to keep up with the payment of the organs they had purchased. Similarly, the future depicted in the film Repo Men features reclaimers of artificial organs, which are taken back from the recipient should they fail to keep up with their payments for the implantation surgery.

  • The manga series Deadman Wonderland
    Deadman Wonderland
    is a manga serial written by Jinsei Kataoka and illustrated by Kazuma Kondou, who also wrote and illustrated the Eureka Seven manga, and published in Shōnen Ace since 2007. Tokyopop acquired the licensing rights to distribute the manga in English and has released the first volume on February 9, 2010...

    depicts prisoners being farmed for organs depending upon the results of a twisted slot machine, which is used for the purpose of removing an organ or body part (ie. heart, eyes, etc.) from an individual should they lose one of the matches that occur at the titular theme park.

  • In the film Crank: High Voltage, the protagonist is subjected to organ theft by having his heart removed and he goes on a path of vengeance against those who stole his heart and replaced it with an artificial one.

  • The flash cartoon series Charlie the Unicorn
    Charlie the Unicorn
    Charlie the Unicorn is a Flash animated short film and viral video directed, produced, animated, and written by Jason Steele of independent film company FilmCow...

    depicts the protagonist having his kidney stolen by the two unicorns who convince him to go on adventures with him, much to Charlie's chagrin.

  • The music video for the song "I'm Only Human Sometimes" on the William Control
    William Control
    William Control is an American electronica band and the side project of Aiden's wiL Francis. He was signed to Victory Records and has released two albums, "Hate Culture" and "Noir", the latter of which was released on June 8, 2010.-History:...

     album, Noir
    Noir (William Control album)
    Noir is the second studio album by William Control. Thus far, "I'm Only Human Sometimes" is the first and only single released to promote the album. It also spawned a music video which can be viewed on Victory Records's official Dailymotion account...

    , is about organ theft. The video's plot follows William through a night on the town during which he meets two attractive women that drug him, seemingly sexually assault him, and remove what appears to be one of his kidneys. He wakes up the next morning crudely stitched up in the bath tub of a motel room, visibly in pain, and holding a note that advises him to call 9-1-1.

  • Season 4 of US TV show Nip/Tuck
    Nip/Tuck
    Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...

    is based around an illegal kidney (and on occasion other organs) harvesting network.

  • In the movie Turistas
    Turistas
    Turistas is a 2006 American thriller film directed and produced by John Stockwell. In some regions of the world, such as France, the Republic of Ireland, Malta and the UK, the film has been released under the alternative title Paradise Lost.-Plot:Three young American tourists, Alex , his sister...

    many characters are the victims of an organ-theft network in Brazil.

  • The films Coma
    Coma (film)
    Coma is a 1978 suspense film based on the novel of the same name by Robin Cook. The film rights were acquired by director Michael Crichton, and the movie was produced by Martin Erlichmann for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...

    and Death Warrant
    Death Warrant
    Death Warrant is a 1990 action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was written by David S. Goyer while a student at USC, and was Goyer's first screenplay to be sold and produced commercially.-Plot summary:...

    details organ harvestings as part of the black market trade.

  • The Magic: The Gathering
    Magic: The Gathering
    Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...

    villains called Phyrexians, a group of flesh and metal beings, capture and occasionally harvest organs and body parts from their victims to repurpose them or steal body parts from other victims (eyes, limbs, etc.) and add them onto other Phyrexian monstrosities. One major example is the Blue Aligned Phyrexians led by Jin Gitaxias, who practices these acts frequently.

See also

  • Human Tissue Authority
    Human Tissue Authority
    The Human Tissue Authority is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom that regulates the removal, storage, use and disposal of human bodies, organs and tissue for a number of scheduled purposes such as research, transplantation, and education and training.It was created by the Human...

  • Organ transplant
    Organ transplant
    Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...

  • Shichinin no Tomurai
    Shichinin no Tomurai
    is a 2005 Japanese film wrote and directed by Dankan. It tells the story of seven families on a summer camp, where the parents are involved in a very dark deal in organ trafficking. The official English site states it to be based in true events.-External links:...

    (Japanese dark comedy film which deals with organized organ theft)
  • Aftonbladet-Israel controversy
  • Yehuda Hiss
    Yehuda Hiss
    Yehuda Hiss is the chief pathologist at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine and has held this position since 1988...


Further reading

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