Transplant Tourism

Citizen’s from wealthy countries such as the United States are participating in transplant tourism, where they travel abroad to countries such as China to buy illegally-obtained organs. Although the US has laws in place to address illegal harvesting of organs, more stringent diplomatic pressure against the Chinese government are required to entice them to enforce their laws against illegal harvesting. 

For the U.S, illegal harvesting has both moral and health implications for US citizens. The United States government condemns the illegal harvesting of human organs due to morale and ethical implications. Although the government acknowledges that thousands of Americans will never receive organs using legal methods within the United States, the potential for human rights violations, especially against the disenfranchised is too great to support its practice. 

Thus, the National Organ Transplant Act approved on October 19, 1984 and amended in 1988 and 1990, outlawed the sale of human organs and provided for the establishment of the Task Force on Organ Transplantation. The US government’s view is that a black market in human organs is not only a grave threat to public health, it reserves lifesaving treatment for those who can best afford it at the expense of those who cannot. From a health perspective, American’s receiving transplants overseas may be unknowingly bringing infectious diseases into this country. Recipients are at risk of tuberculosis, HIV, and other serious diseases. 

 The U.S. government has attempted to prosecute organ “brokers” but had little success until 2011 where a New York man was convicted in federal court in Trenton for brokering three illegal kidney transplants. The U.S. government also partners with the World Health Organization where they established 9 Guiding principles in 1991 with regard to the proper harvesting of human organs. In accordance with Guiding principle Number 5 “the human body and its parts cannot be the subject of commercial transactions. The US government is also working with special interest and humanitarian groups to gather current facts on China’s policies and putting pressure on the Chinese government through diplomatic channels. The US government also promotes organ donation registries to manage the availability and disposition of organs to ensure there is a fair and equal distribution of organs based on a credible priority system.