Human Body Parts – A Big Business

I quickly skimmed last month’s edition of Wired magazine, coming across an article about the selling of human body parts that made me cringe.  I was reminded of the horror I felt when reading that article, by a recent visit to Wired’s web site where you can find the article in its entirety. If you are venturous and want to read the entire article, click on this hyperlink and it will take you there. 

Here are just some of the values for our body parts – check the range difference from country to country.

• Blood (per pint):  US $337 – India $25  – Until the 1970s, for-profit blood-collection centers were located in almost every poor neighborhood, somewhat like payday loan centers are today. This changed after a study showed that paid donations encourage lax standards. As a result, the rules were modified and blood and organs can no longer be sold. At least not here. In the developing world, there are still profits to be made. In 2008, blood thieves in India were busted for keeping people prisoner and milking their blood up to three times a week. Some captives had been held for more than two years.
• Livers: Legal Price (Living & Non-Living Donors) $557,100 – Illegal: $157,000 – Executed Chinese prisoners are one source of black-market livers. Or organ brokers can set you up in the Philippines, where illicit donations likely come from those desperate for cas.
• Kidneys: India $15,000.00 – China $62,000.00 – USA $262,900
• Womb Rentals: India $20-$30,000.00 – USA $80,000 to $150,000

You need to read the article.  Quite often the sources of these organs is prisoners, and China seems to be a big contributor.  It makes me wonder how many prisoners are executed simply for their body parts; it is definitely a real possiblity that this is exactly what is going on.