New int'l convention needed to stop organ trafficking: UN-backed study

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ww.chinaview.cn 2009-10-14 07:53:59

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- A new, binding international treaty is needed to prevent trafficking in organs, tissues and cells (OTC), protect victims and prosecute offenders, according to a joint study launched on Tuesday by the United Nations and the Council of Europe.  The study calls for the prohibition of financial gain from the human body or its parts as the basis of all legislation on organ transplants, adding that organ donation should be promoted to increase availability, with preference given to OTC donation from the deceased.  "We have legislation and definitions covering the trafficking in human beings for the purpose of organ removal, but the study points out that there is a legal vacuum for the traffic in organs, tissues and cells," said Marja Ruotanen, director of Cooperation of the Council of Europe, which co-sponsored the study with the United Nations. Carmen Prior, co-author of the study and public prosecutor of Austria, said that there were great differences in preventing trafficking in humans to remove their organs and preventing trafficking in body parts themselves. Both phenomena required different solutions, Prior said. Trafficking in persons for the use of body parts was already recognized internationally as a severe human rights violation and a crime, and international law against it was already comprehensive. There were also several global instruments dealing with trafficking in organs and tissues, but missing were internationally agreed-upon definitions within an international convention, Prior said. She maintained that such a convention should be based on the creation of a definition of the criminal trafficking in organs, tissues and cells, or OTC, and development of measures to prevent it, to protect donors from it and to prosecute brokers and medical staff who engage in it. Arthur Caplan, co-author and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics of the University of Pennsylvania, said that although trafficking in OTC continued, many nations were starting to take steps to reduce it. The report reaffirmed that organ, tissue and cell material should only be obtained for transplant through "voluntary altruism," Caplan said. "That is, no financial gain should accompany the process." The report was strong in its ethical perspective because of a conviction that "money for parts" exploited the poor, he said. He explained that those in extreme poverty often did not have choices and remained poor after they sold their body parts. In addition, Caplan maintained that buying and selling organs violated basic human dignity and medical ethics. UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women Rachel Mayanja said she hoped the UN General Assembly would lay the groundwork for such a treaty expeditiously. "This is the study that we have just launched, we hope that the study will be presented to the Assembly, and that the issue will be put on the agenda so that they can start working and debating this issue," she told a news briefing in New York. "We would like, of course, to see work on a convention, a binding convention, start as soon as possible." Trafficking in OTC should be clearly distinguished from trafficking in human beings for the removal of organs, a small part of the wider problem, the report says, pointing to widespread confusion in the legal and scientific communities between the two types of trafficking, which require different solutions. It notes the possibility of a high number of unreported cases of both crimes, due to low risks and huge profits for perpetrators.OTC trafficking often takes the form of what is known as "transplant tourism," with recipients traveling, usually from wealthier nations, to acquire organs in countries where measures to prevent the crime or protect live donors are not in place or not implemented. It is estimated that 5 percent to 10 percent of kidney transplants performed annually around the world are the result of trafficking. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/14/content_12227070.htm

Editor: Li Xianzhi

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