“The Heavier Selves”: Embodied and Subjective Suffering of Organ Sellers in Bangladesh

Moniruzzaman, Monir

doi:10.1111/etho.12236

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Despite growing attention for the organ trade, scholarly enquiry into this issue remains scarce (Pascalev et al 2016). Existing research predominantly describes the detrimental outcomes associated with selling a kidney on the black market (Mendoza 2010;Moniruzzaman 2019;Yousaf and Purkayastha 2015).The sale of living donor kidneys is the most commonly reported form of organ trade (WHO 2007b). Only few studies focus on other aspects of organ trafficking.…”

Section: Organ Trade and Traffickingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ambagtsheer

2021

Trends Organ Crim

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The human organ trade is proliferating globally. However, far fewer cases have been prosecuted than would be expected based on estimates of the crime. Research exploring the challenges to investigating and prosecuting organ trafficking cases is practically non-existent. Also no studies exist that explain these challenges utilizing a criminal justice framework. This article aims to explain the legal, institutional and environmental factors that affected the investigation and prosecution of two organ trafficking cases: the Netcare case, exposed in South Africa and the Medicus case, exposed in Kosovo. It analyzes these factors through a comparative, mixed-method design, utilizing a theoretical criminal justice framework. Both cases constituted globally operating criminal networks involving brokers and transplant professionals that colluded in organizing illegal transplants. Both cases contained human trafficking elements, however only the Medicus case was prosecuted as a human trafficking case. Legal uncertainty, a lack of institutional readiness and cross-border collaboration issues hampered investigation and prosecution of the Netcare case. The Medicus case also reported problems during cross-border collaboration, as well as a corrupt environment and institutional barriers, which impeded a successful case outcome. Recommendations to improve enforcement of organ trafficking include improving identification of suspicious transplant activity, strengthening cross-border collaboration and enhancing whistleblower protection laws.

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Section: Organ Trade and Traffickingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The global scarcity of human organs has led to an unregulated global organ market (Columb 2020;Moniruzzaman 2019). Although official statistics are lacking, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that approx.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ambagtsheer

2021

Trends Organ Crim

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“…A more relevant question is therefore, whether GKE will help to induce or prevent organ trafficking. While organizations such as the DICG and CD‐P‐TO fear that allowing GKE will induce the crime, empirical research suggests that what drives organ trafficking more than scarcity is the global inequity in access to donation and transplantation and the growing divide between the rich and poor [28,30‐32]. On the one hand, GKE has the potential to reduce global disparities in access to donation and transplantation, in particular, to prevent that only the rich patients have access to transplantation [1,33].…”

Section: Does Gke Violate the Principle Of Nonpayment For Organs And Does It Constitute “Organ Trafficking”?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Kidney Exchange: opportunity or exploitation? An ELPAT/ESOT appraisal

et al. 2020

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Summary This paper addresses ethical, legal, and psychosocial aspects of Global Kidney Exchange (GKE). Concerns have been raised that GKE violates the nonpayment principle, exploits donors in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and detracts from the aim of self‐sufficiency. We review the arguments for and against GKE. We argue that while some concerns about GKE are justified based on the available evidence, others are speculative and do not apply exclusively to GKE but to living donation more generally. We posit that concerns can be mitigated by implementing safeguards, by developing minimum quality criteria and by establishing an international committee that independently monitors and evaluates GKE’s procedures and outcomes. Several questions remain however that warrant further clarification. What are the experiences and views of recipients and donors participating in GKE? Who manages the escrow funds that have been put in place for donor and recipients? What procedures and safeguards have been put in place to prevent corruption of these funds? What are the inclusion criteria for participating GKE centers? GKE provides opportunity to promote access to donation and transplantation but can only be conducted with the appropriate safeguards. Patients’ and donors’ voices are missing in this debate.

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“…Liver sellers, therefore, stated to me that the organ trade is haram , or forbidden by their faith. These sellers faced embodied and subjective suffering for violating religious, cultural, and ethical practices of bodily holism, ownership, and dignity (Moniruzzaman ).…”

Section: Sufferings Of Sellersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The trade in human liver lobes: bioviolence against organ sellers in Bangladesh

Moniruzzaman

2019

Royal Anthropological Inst

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The rapid growth in organ transplantation has created an illicit trade in human organs. The kidney trade has flourished in the last few decades, but in the last few years this has been coupled with an emerging liver trade. This article examines the liver trade sourced from poor sellers in Bangladesh. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate how a landless farmer and a village housewife both sell their liver lobes on the black market, and how the recipients undergo liver transplants in Bangladesh and India. I reveal that liver selling, like kidney selling, is primarily driven by the sellers' debt. What is surprising, though, in this anthropological analysis is that microcredit, a Nobel Prize-winning economic operation, has negatively contributed to organ selling in Bangladesh. I discover that the liver trade leads to tragic outcomes for both sellers and recipients: the sellers could not repay their loans by selling a liver lobe, while one of the recipients died just over a month after the surgery. I therefore argue that liver trade is advancing through a series of disturbing ironies, resulting in bioviolence, exploitation, and suffering for the vulnerable victims.

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“The Heavier Selves”: Embodied and Subjective Suffering of Organ Sellers in Bangladesh

Cited by 7 publications

References 68 publications

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

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

Global Kidney Exchange: opportunity or exploitation? An ELPAT/ESOT appraisal

The trade in human liver lobes: bioviolence against organ sellers in Bangladesh

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