Human Spare Parts

Antonio Medina saw his wife dead on a table, her chest wide open, and her heart and lungs were missing. That was how a Central American migrant and his wife ended up after being kidnapped by a gang of organ snatchers while the couple were en route to the United States in search of greener pastures. In the Sinai desert, refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea who are attempting to reach Israel are being snatched by Bedouin tribes only to become unwilling organ donors on demand. Crooked doctors from Cairo would call in to ask for availability of body parts and if a qualified helpless “donor” is on hand, a mobile clinic will be set up somewhere in the desert and an unfortunate refugee will be operated on and then dumped for dead. As one Bedouin chief put it, “It’s like spare parts for a car. The doctors come with some sort of mobile fridge where the organs can be stored for six to eight hours and resold in Cairo or elsewhere.” In China, the organs of an executed prisoner are sold to the highest bidder by unscrupulous government personnel. Organ harvesting is taking place in the Philippines, Turkey, Iran, Czech Republic, Georgia, Pakistan, India, Mozambique and South Africa where surgeons remove kidneys, lungs, liver, corneas, bones, tendons, heart valves, skin and other human parts and then transported to the United States, Germany, Scandinavia, United Kingdom, Israel and other rich countries for distribution. Due to the shortage of willing and legitimate organ donors, this business of stealing a person’s organs for the sake of money has become more profitable than human smuggling or even drug trafficking.    

By: Eduardo R. Meneses Jr.