The illicit Organ Trade: Biographical, Anatomical, Economic and Legal Aspects

Nater Paul Akpen

doi:10.5281/zenodo.17591291

Journal of Academics Stand Against Poverty

Academics Stand Against Poverty

Journal of Academics Stand Against Poverty (Journal of ASAP) is an open access international multidisciplinary journal published under the ISSN 2690-3458 (electronic edition) and ISSN 2690-3431 (print edition) by Academics Stand Against Poverty, a non-profit organization based in United States (EIN # 32-0324998). Its mission is to publish high-quality work that can make genuine contributions to understanding and eradicating poverty and its effects in the real world. Such work will address the structural causes of poverty with an eye to the special challenges poor people face in such areas as nutrition, water, shelter, health and health care, sanitation, clothing and personal care, energy, education, social and political participation and respect, physical safety, family planning, environmental degradations and hazards, working conditions in employment and at home, navigating governmental agencies and the legal system, banking and credit, travel and transportation, and communications. Journal ASAP is committed to ensuring that perspectives of the poor are adequately represented on its pages, and that these pages are accessible to all. The journal makes substantial efforts to include voices from the global South as well as from non-elite educational institutions and from organizations, agencies and communities that are working toward poverty eradication. It also aims for the widest possible reach by being entirely open-access: its one/two issues each year are free for download anywhere in the world without any requirement to provide personal information. Journal ASAP invites submission of original work and maintains a rigorous double-blind peer review system that provides constructive feedback to assist authors in presenting their work in a way that is clear, broadly accessible and practically useful. Journal ASAP is a pure Open Access Journal and allows the author to retain the copyright in their articles. Articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY) to allow others to freely access, copy and use research provided the author is correctly attributed.

A kidney can cost up to USD 200,000. Humans have two kidneys but normally require just one to live. Individuals can donate one to relatives for altruistic reasons. But to pay USD 200,000 - or any other amount - to obtain a kidney, no country in the world allows that. Except for Iran. This global blanket ban has pushed the trade of organs underground and it now ranks as the fourth most lucrative illegal activity – behind only drugs, arms, and human trafficking. Rising incidence of end-stage kidney disease will increase demand for replacement kidneys, both gifted and bought. This essay studies this trade using two case studies, one of a Nigerian leading legislator arrested in the UK for getting a kidney for his daughter and another on kidney demand in Iran where trade in organs is permitted. The global value of the trade is studied, and literature gaps are discussed. The inadequacies of the current system are highlighted and improvements suggested, based on best practices around the world.

Journal of Academics Stand Against Poverty

Journal of Academics Stand Against Poverty

The illicit Organ Trade: Biographical, Anatomical, Economic and Legal Aspects

Contributors

Abstract

Keywords

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