Drive to combat organ trafficking
By REBECCA TORR
Published: 18th November 2006
A CAMPAIGN is being launched to stop transplant patients in Bahrain travelling abroad to buy human organs.
Bahrain is being urged to help combat the international trade in organs – and to come up with a legitimate alternative for patients here.
The now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) has teamed up with the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions (COFS) to address the situation of transplants in Bahrain and the Gulf region.
BCHR vice-president Nabeel Rajab said kidneys were being sold by poor families in Asian countries for as little as a few hundred dollars to $2,000 (BD756).
Drive to combat organ trafficking
By REBECCA TORR
Published: 18th November 2006
A CAMPAIGN is being launched to stop transplant patients in Bahrain travelling abroad to buy human organs.
Bahrain is being urged to help combat the international trade in organs – and to come up with a legitimate alternative for patients here.
The now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) has teamed up with the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions (COFS) to address the situation of transplants in Bahrain and the Gulf region.
BCHR vice-president Nabeel Rajab said kidneys were being sold by poor families in Asian countries for as little as a few hundred dollars to $2,000 (BD756).
“There are global ‘hot-spots’ for the kidney market, but from Bahrain patients mostly go to Pakistan, Philippines and Iran,” Mr Rajab told the GDN.
“There are not yet adequate figures on the scope of organ trafficking due to its clandestine nature.
“However, there are probably several thousand cases per year.
“There are also indicators that this phenomenon is growing.
“For example, prices for a kidney have consistently dropped in recent years and there are increasing stories about organ trafficking in the world – particularly as China has made it a very lucrative business.”
Mr Rajab said the two human rights groups were calling for Bahrain authorities to implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons it had already ratified and address the role the country plays on the international scene of transplant tourism.
He said they were also calling for advanced discussions on the creation of alternative organ supply sources for organ-failure patients in Bahrain.
Authorities, he said, should consider the use of organs from deceased and altruistic (mostly related) donors.
“Organ trafficking is not so much a problem inside Bahrain but rather, because of the situation of lack of access to ethical solutions for organ supplies in the country, patients from here and most other Gulf countries travel abroad as transplant tourists – mostly for kidneys,” said Mr Rajab.
“Although they may not intend it, there are too many exploitative practices around the ways that these organs are then retrieved for transplant.
“This is a major human rights concern.
“Solicited organ ‘donors’ (also called victims/survivors of the organ trade) come from very poor desperate families who get between a few hundred dollars to $2,000 (BD756) for their kidney.
“The main problem then is the unsafe practices of organ donation in these circumstances and the many consequences that these commercial organ donors pay as a result of the market-driven exploitative practices.
“As COFS makes apparent, studies show these individuals suffer long term health, economic, social and psychological consequences.”
Mr Rajab and COFS executive director Dr Debra Budiani conducted meetings in Manama and Bangkok, Thailand, to establish the partnership and begin developing a framework for advocacy.
COFS is an international non-profit international health and human rights organisation committed to combating the trafficking of humans for organs and ending the exploitation of the poor as a source of organ and tissue supplies. The organisation combines prevention, policy advocacy, and survivor support through a comprehensive approach to combat organ trafficking.
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