Human rights and world culture: The diffusion of legislation against the organ trade

Abstract

Due to the process of globalization, rapid medical and technological advances, and the persistence of the global scarcity in organs, the organ trade has grown to become an international issue of increasingconcern. Over the past several decades, more than 100 countries have passed legislation banning the commercial trade in organs. What explains this rapid, global diffusion of commercial transplantation laws, and what are the key factors influencing legislation? This studyexplores these questions through an analysis based on sociology's world culture, world polity theory. Utilizing survival analysisn models, the study covers 127 countries from 1965-2012. Results offer support for the world culture/world polity theoretical framework, while economic development also impacts legislation. The global trendtoward legislation is influenced by global, cultural, and economic factors.

Understanding the challenges to investigating and prosecuting organ trafficking: a comparative analysis of two cases

“…According to these guiding principles, payment for organs should be banned because it is 'likely to take unfair advantage of the poorest and most vulnerable groups, undermines altruistic donation, and leads to profiteering and human trafficking' (WHO 2010). Over 50 countries have adopted laws prohibiting payments for organs (Amahazion 2016;Council of Europe/United Nations 2009). The law against THB(OR), by contrast, is relatively new.…”

“…Data was gathered as part of a larger research project, funded by the European Commission, that aimed to increase knowledge, raise awareness and improve responses to THBOR (Ambagtsheer 2017;HOTT Project 2012-2016. The underlying study is based on data that was collected in Durban (South Africa) and in Priština (Kosovo) on the two prosecuted cases during onsite research visits in 2012 and 2013.…”

“…The principle of non-payment for organs has been laid down in various international instruments (Council of Europe 1997; Steering Committee of the Istanbul Summit 2008). Almost all countries prohibit payments for organs (hereafter referred to as 'organ trade') (Amahazion 2016;Council of Europe/United Nations 2009).…”

Parents, individualism and education: three paradigms and four countries

“…Similarly, labour markets and workplaces around the world are increasingly governed by laws which say people will be treated as individuals and not according to their group membership. These laws are nested in the laws enshrining human rights, including the rights of the child, which neoinstitutionalists see as integral to world culture because they affirm individualism (Thomas et al , 1987; Scott and Meyer, 1994; Elliott, 2007; Matthias, 2013; Amahazion, 2016). These laws also give individuals direct encouragement to defy family authority, for example over issues affecting women, such as differential access to education, forced marriage and genital mutilation.…”

Generating Ambivalence: Media Representations of Canadian Transplant Tourism

“…Since the mid-1990s, a small number of Canadians with end-stage organ failure have become transplant tourists by traveling to India, Pakistan, China, the Philippines, and other countries to purchase "transplant packages" from clinics that broker organs (one centre records 69 Canadian transplant tourists from 1998 to 2013; see Prasad et al, 2016;Skelton, 2007). 2 Through buying from or coercing donors, these transactions are implicated in the violation of the human rights of organ providers, are illegal in host countries (with market bans now in 100 countries), are condemned by every organization of global governance, and are advocated against by an international anti-transplant abuse campaign led by the 2008 Declaration of Istanbul (Amahazion, 2016). There is evidence of negative health outcomes for organ recipients (Prasad et al, 2016;Yakupoglu et al, 2010) and live organ providers (see e.g., Budiani-Saberi & Delmonico, 2008;Lundin, 2012), including reports of death (Thakur, 2013), and of statesanctioned systematic use of prisoners' organs in China (Delmonico, 2011;Matas & Trey, 2012;Shimazono, 2007;United States, 2016).…”