This article focuses on examining the situation of organ trafficking in Africa from the aspect of pragmatist ethics. In the mainstream thought, the broader ethical dilemma of organ trafficking is viewed within the moral contestation of altruism as a rule for organ procurement and the resulting worldwide organ shortage. The incapability of altruistic transplant orthodoxy to serve as an applicable foundation for a public policy is considered as a reason for organ trafficking. (...) In fact, to battle organ trafficking, utilitarian-inclined studies suggest organ selling, compensated donations, and non-directed paid donations as practical alternatives. However, when investigating the context of organ trafficking in Africa, the issue goes beyond the mere moral dilemma of altruism and organ shortage. In the region, organ trafficking is rooted within more systemic, structural, socio-economic, and political problems, grounded in the abuse of transplantation, and connected to transplant tourism and migration, which needs a pragmatic multimodal solutions than the earlier mainstream pathways. In pragmatist ethics, the moral assessment and solutions to the underlying problems depend on the context wherein the moral problem arises. Pragmatist ethics does not stick to absolute moral theories; instead, it focuses on the relevant assessment of the felt moral problem in a given context and aims at seeking solutions afresh. Thus, in the subsequent sections, this article looks at the context of organ trafficking in Africa and reassesses it by incorporating it into the ethical debates of transplantation and organ procurements and trading. The final part of this article reflects on solutions with the reconsideration of the context of transplantation and organ trafficking in the region. (shrink)

Organ trafficking in all its various forms is an international crime which could be entirely eliminated if healthcare professionals refused to participate in or be complicit with it. Types of organ trafficking are defined and principal international declarations and resolutions concerning it are discussed. The evidence for the involvement of healthcare professionals is illustrated with examples from South Africa and China. The ways in which healthcare professionals directly or indirectly perpetuate illegal organ transplantation are then (...) considered, including lack of awareness, the paucity of both undergraduate and postgraduate education on organ trafficking, turning a blind eye, advocacy of organ commercialism, and the lure of financial gain. (shrink)

The increasing gap between organ supply and demand has opened the door for illegal organ sale, trafficking of human organs, tissues and cells, as well as transplant tourism. Currently, underprivileged and vulnerable populations in resource-poor countries are a major source of organs for rich patient-tourists who can afford to purchase organs at home or abroad. This paper presents a summary of international initiatives, such as World Health Organization’s Principle Guidelines, The Declaration of Istanbul, Asian Task Force Recommendations, (...) as well as UNESCO’s and the United Nation’s initiatives against trafficking of human organs, tissues, cells, and transplant tourism. Beyond the summary, it calls for more practical measures to be taken to implement the existing guidelines and recommendations, in order to prevent exploitation of the poor as organ providers. The paper suggests that an international legally binding agreement in criminalizing organ trafficking would be a step forward to bring a change in the global picture of organ trafficking and transplant tourism. (shrink)

In organ transplantation, the demand for human organs has grown far faster than the supply of organs. This has opened the door for illegal organ trade and trafficking including from children. Organized crime groups and individual organ brokers exploit the situation and, as a result, black markets are becoming more numerous and organized organ trafficking is expanding worldwide. While underprivileged and vulnerable men and women in developing countries are a major source of trafficked organs, (...) and may themselves be trafficked for the purpose of illegal organ removal and trade, children are at especial risk of exploitation. With the confirmed cases of children being trafficked for their organs, child organ trafficking, which once called a “modern urban legend”, is a sad reality in today’s world. By presenting a global picture of child organ trafficking, this paper emphasizes that child organ trafficking is no longer a myth but a reality which has to be addressed. It argues that the international efforts against organ trafficking and trafficking in human beings for organ removal have failed to address child organ trafficking adequately. This chapter suggests that more orchestrated international collaboration as well as development of preventive measure and legally binding documents are needed to fight child organ trafficking and to support its victims. (shrink)

This article draws on a five-year, multi-sited transnational research project on the global traffic in human organs, tissues, and body parts from the living as well as from the dead as a misrecognized form of human sacrifice. Capitalist expansion and the spread of advanced medical and surgical techniques and developments in biotechnology have incited new tastes and traffic in the skin, bones, blood, organs, tissues, marrow and reproductive and genetic marginalized other. Examples drawn from recent ethnographic research in Israel, the (...) Palestinian Authority and Turkey serve to cast light on the dark side of organs harvesting and transplantation. The article focuses on the dangers of the `fetishized kidney' for both sellers and buyers, for whom this new commodity has become an organ of opportunity and an organ of last resort. The bodily sacrifice is disguised as a donation, rendered invisible by its anonymity, and hidden under the medical rhetoric of `life saving' and `gift giving'. It suggests that the ultimate fetish as recognized long ago by Ivan Illich is the idea of `life' as object of manipulation. (shrink)

Organ trafficking and trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ transplantation are recognized as significant international problems. Yet these forms of trafficking are largely left out of international criminal law regimes and to some extent of domestic criminal law regimes as well. Trafficking of organs or persons for their organs does not come within the jurisdiction of the ICC, except in very special cases such as when conducted in a manner that conforms to (...) the definitions of genocide or crimes against humanity. Although the United States Code characterizes trafficking as a transnational crime with national implications, (22 U.S.C. § 7101(b)(24) (2010)), trafficking is rarely prosecuted in domestic courts. It has thus functioned in practice largely as what might be judged a stateless offense, out of the purview of both international and national courts. Yet these forms of organ trafficking remain widespread—and devastating to those who are its victims. In this article, we begin by describing what is known about the extent of organ trafficking and trafficking in persons for the purpose of removal of organs. We then critically evaluate how and why such trafficking has remained largely unaddressed by both international and domestic criminal law regimes. This state of affairs, we argue, presents a missed chance for developing the legitimacy of international criminal law and an illustration of how far current international legal institutions remain from ideal justice. (shrink)

A recent joint study by the Council of Europe and the United Nations focused on the criminality surrounding organ donations. Published in October 2009, it points out the various violations of the international prohibition on the trafficking of organs. This paper will first analyze this study and then contextualize it in the current discourse about organ donation in the Philippines. Finally, the issue of organ donation will be put in the wider discourse of justice in (...) class='Hi'>organ transplantation.Organ donation and trafficking are much debated issues in medical ethics. This paper will discuss this problematic in three specific dimensions. After an explanation of the general lines of the debate on organ transplantation , it will analyze the recently published joint report of the Council of Europe and the United Nation on the trafficking of organs . The discussion afterwards will be situated in the concrete cultural, ethical and legal framework of the Philippines as a test case for the validity and applicability of the reports recommendation . Lastly, it will conclude with some ethical considerations on the horizon of an elaborate concept of justice. (shrink)

Prior research has shown that human trafficking has multiple facets and is deeply enmeshed in societies around the world. Two central challenges for anti-trafficking organizations pertain to confronting systemic injustices and establishing caring organizations for survivors to start the process of healing and restoration. Analyzing the work of an anti-trafficking organization, International Sanctuary in Mumbai, we seek to elucidate how a space for caring for trafficking survivors is constructed in a largely non-egalitarian and unjust context. We (...) contribute to discussions on how caring infrastructures are possibly developed so that they do not write off existing gendered and in-egalitarian social structures and how they shape individual biographies. We also highlight how the specific, situated context—defined by those very structures—shapes and influences the transformative potential of care interventions. (shrink)

Human trafficking for organ removal (HTOR) should not be reduced to a problem of supply and demand of organs for transplantation, a problem of organized crime and criminal justice, or a problem of voiceless, abandoned victims. Rather, HTOR is at once an egregious human rights abuse and a form of human trafficking. As such, it demands a human-rights based approach in analysis and response to this problem, placing the victim at the center of initiatives to combat this (...) phenomenon. Such an approach requires us to consider how various measures impact or disregard victims/potential victims of HTOR and gives us tools to better advocate their interests, rights and freedoms. (shrink)

This report presents a comprehensive set of recommendations for protection of human beings who are trafficked for the purpose of organ removal or are targeted for such trafficking. Developed by an interdisciplinary group of international experts under the auspices of the project Trafficking in Human Beings for the Purpose of Organ Removal, these recommendations are grounded in the view that an individual who parts with an organ for money within an illegal scheme is ipso facto (...) a victim and that the crime of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of organ removal intersects with the crime of trafficking in organs. Consequently, the protection of victims should be a priority for all actors involved in antitrafficking activities: those combating organ-related crimes, such as health organizations and survivor support services, and those combating trafficking in human beings, such as the criminal justice sectors. Taking into account the special characteristics of THBOR, the authors identify 5 key stakeholders in the protection of human beings trafficked for organ removal or targeted for such trafficking: states, law enforcement agencies and judiciary, nongovernmental organizations working in the areas of human rights and antitrafficking, transplant centers and health professionals involved in transplant medicine, and oversight bodies. For each stakeholder, the authors identify key areas of concern and concrete measures to identify and protect the victims of THBOR. The aim of the recommendations is to contribute to the development of a nonlegislative response to THBOR, to promote the exchange of knowledge and best practices in the area of victim protection, and to facilitate the development of a policy-driven action plan for the protection of THBOR victims in the European Union and worldwide. (shrink)

In Nepal, live donor organ transplantation is only 14 years old with the first successful kidney transplant made in 2008 and a successful liver and bone marrow transplant made in 2016. However, transplantation of cadaveric cornea dates back to 1998. There are still no cases of animal-to-human organ transplantation in Nepal. There are stringent laws to regulate human body organ transplantation in Nepal which are amended from time to time. However, there is a racket of human traffickers (...) who lure rural people from this low-income country into the illegal organ trade. Furthermore, there is a substantial lack of awareness of organ donation among the general public. This article focuses on the stipulations of ethical, legal, and practical issues of obtaining organs procured from living and brain-dead donors that support the process of transplantation in Nepal. In addition, the article also explores the legal and practical issues of organ trafficking and organ donation awareness in Nepal on the basis of factual data and findings from other studies. (shrink)

Drug-trafficking in Colombia has been a widely researched phenomenon, especially now, as the country undergoes a transition process with its older guerrilla. Now more than ever it is fundamental to examine how drug-trafficking organizations violent activities affect the consolidation of peace. This article considers different approaches to study violence derived from drug-trafficking, in order to advance towards the objectives of transitional justice. For that matter, this work is based on the idea that drug-trafficking directly generates and (...) reproduces violence which is fueled by the structural violence present in the Colombian context. My thesis is that this phenomenon deters non-repetition guarantees and weakens democracy, which is why there will be three main arguments presented that will revolve around the lack of consensus and the implications of considering drug wars as civil wars, how decisions related to the conceptual apprehension limit the competence of international humanitarian law, and the need for holistic strategies capable of facing drug-trafficking’s political and violent power. Later, alternatives will be explored around the possibilities that each argument offers, as well as which aspects could contribute to a more appropriate approach to combat drug-trafficking. Lastly, I will defend why implementing bottom-up oriented actions can advance towards transitional justice’s intermediate and final objectives, as it is the only alternative that escapes fatalist, utopian or interventionist scenarios. (shrink)

The passage of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in 2000 marked the first global effort to address human trafficking in 50 years. Since the passage of the UN Protocol international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and individual states have devoted significant resources to eliminating human trafficking. This article critically examines the impact of these efforts with reference to the trends, political, and empirical challenges in data collection and the limitations (...) of international law. I argue that current international law disproportionately addresses the criminal prosecution of traffickers at the expense of trafficking victims’ human rights, and has therefore not yet reached its full potential in the fight against human sex trafficking. (shrink)

This paper argues that potential cases of oppression, such as sex trafficking, can sometimes comprise autonomous choices by the trafficked individuals. This issue still divides radical from liberal feminists, with the former wanting to ‘rescue’ the ‘victims’ and the latter insisting that there might be good reasons for ‘hiding from the rescuers.’ This article presents new arguments for the liberal approach and raises two demands: first, help organizations should be run by affected women and be open-minded about whether or (...) not the trafficked individuals should remain in the sex industry. Second, the career choices of trafficked individuals should be expanded by the introduction of an opportunity-extending right to asylum. (shrink)

Despite stringent and fine tuned laws most jurisdictions are not able to curb organ trafficking. Nor are they able to provide organs to the needy. There are reports of the kidnapping and murder of children and adults to “harvest” their organs. Millions of people are suffering, not because the organs are not available but because “morality” does not allow them to have access to the organs. Arguments against organ sale are grounded in two broad considerations: sale is (...) contrary to human dignity, and sale violates equity. Both these objections are examined in this article and it is concluded that they reflect a state of moral paternalism rather than pragmatism. It is argued that a live human body constitutes a vital source of supply of organs and tissues and that the possibilities of its optimum utilisation should be explored. Commercialisation should be curbed not by depriving a needy person of his genuine requirements but by making the enforcement agencies efficient. (shrink)

The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers Content Type Journal Article Category Book Review Pages 1-3 DOI 10.1007/s11673-012-9361-3 Authors Dominique E. Martin, 39 Eltham Street, Flemington, 3031 Australia Journal Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Online ISSN 1872-4353 Print ISSN 1176-7529.

It has been suggested that human organs should be bought and sold on a regulated market as any other material property belonging to an individual. This would have the advantage of both addressing the grave shortage of organs available for transplantation and respecting the freedom of individuals to choose to do whatever they want with their body parts. The old arguments against such a market in human organs are, therefore, being brought back into question.The article examines the different arguments both (...) in favour and against the sale of human organs. It concludes that the body and any of its elements is a full expression of the whole person. As such, they cannot have a price if the individual is to retain his or her full inherent dignity and if society is to retain and protect this very important concept. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik Jahrgang: 20 Heft: 1 Seiten: 355-366.

Has not the time fully come to lift the prohibition on a regulated market in organs for transplantation? Is there a price for such a market that would be too high to pay? The author revisits the cases for and against organ markets in the light of cultural shifts in society and asks whether the traditional insistence on altruism represents a hindrance to much needed developments or a safeguard for much valued public goods.

When cells are starved of their substrate, many nutrient transporters are induced. These undergo rapid endocytosis and redirection of their intracellular trafficking when their substrate becomes available again. The discovery that some of these transporters also act as receptors, or transceptors, suggests that at least part of the sophisticated controls governing the trafficking of these proteins has to do with their signaling function rather than with control of transport. In yeast, the general amino acid permease Gap1 mediates signaling (...) to the protein kinase A pathway. Its endocytic internalization and intracellular trafficking are subject to amino acid control. Other nutrient transceptors controlling this signal transduction pathway appear to be subject to similar trafficking regulation. Transporters with complex regulatory control have also been suggested to function as transceptors in other organisms. Hence, precise regulation of intracellular trafficking in nutrient transporters may be related to the need for tight control of nutrient‐induced signaling. (shrink)

Trafficking in human body parts is one of the most severe form of crime in modern times. The topicality of this phenomenon reinforces the fact that it is intertwined with organised crime and human despair. The resulting repercussions are dangerous for the “donor”, prosperous for the “intermediaries”, and vital for the “recipient”. The paper analyses the phenomenon of trafficking in human body parts, which is directly related to the development of transplant medicine and surgery. Human organ transplantation (...) is moving toward indicative ethics, as ethics of responsibility, and is gradually moving beyond imperative ethics, emphasising duty. Human organ donation is an act of self-sacrifice. Therefore, from an ethical and moral perspective, the commercialization or trafficking of human organs is unacceptable because it violates human dignity. In addition to the ethical implications, the paper analyses international documents on this topic and the Croatian normative regulations on this issue. Finally, bioethical and criminal law answers to this question are given. (shrink)

The issue of sex trafficking has become increasingly politicized in recent years due to the efforts of an influential moral crusade. This article examines the social construction of sex trafficking in the discourse of leading activists and organizations within the crusade, and concludes that the central claims are problematic, unsubstantiated, or demonstrably false. The analysis documents the increasing endorsement and institutionalization of crusade ideology in U.S. government policy and practice.

Coronins constitute an evolutionarily conserved family of WD‐repeat actin‐binding proteins, which can be clearly classified into two distinct groups based on their structural features. All coronins possess a conserved basic N‐terminal motif and three to ten WD repeats clustered in one or two core domains. Dictyostelium and mammalian coronins are important regulators of the actin cytoskeleton, while the fly Dpod1 and the yeast coronin proteins crosslink both actin and microtubules. Apart from that, several coronins have been shown to be involved (...) in vesicular transport. C. elegans POD‐1 and Drosophila coro regulate the actin cytoskeleton, but also govern vesicular trafficking as indicated by mutant phenotypes. In both organisms, defects in cytoskeleton and trafficking lead to severe developmental defects ranging from abnormal cell division to aberrant formation of morphogen gradients. Finally, mammalian coronin 7 appears not to execute any cytoskeleton‐related functions, but rather participates in regulating Golgi trafficking. Here, we review recent data providing more insight into molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of F‐actin structures, cytoskeletal rearrangements and intracellular membrane transport by coronin proteins and the way that they might link cytoskeleton with trafficking in development and disease. BioEssays 27:625–632, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This issue’s “Legal Briefing” column covers legal developments pertaining to organ donation and allocation. This topic has been the subject of recent articles in JCE. Organ donation and allocation have also recently been the subjects of significant public policy attention. In the past several months, legislatures and regulatory agencies across the United States and across the world have changed, or considered changing, the methods for procuring and distributing human organs for transplantation.Currently, in the U.S., more than 100,000 persons (...) are waiting for organ transplantation. In China, more than 1.5 million people are waiting. Given the chronic shortage of available organs (especially kidneys and livers) relative to demand, the primary focus of most legal developments has been on increasing the rate of donation. These and related developments are usefully divided into the following 12 topical categories: 1. Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act2. Presumed Consent and Opt-Out3. Mandated Choice4. Donation after Cardiac Death5. Payment and Compensation6. Donation by Prisoners7. Donor Registries8. Public Education9. Other Procurement Initiatives10. Lawsuits and Liability11. Trafficking and Tourism12. Allocation and Distribution. (shrink)

In the article I justify the acceptability of ex vivo transplantation and I provide the ethical evaluation of trafficking in human organs from the Kantian perspective. Firstly, I refer to passages of Kant's works, where he explicitly states that depriving oneself of one’s body parts for other purposes than self-preservation is not permitted. I explain that the negative ethical evaluation of the disposal of the body parts was given various justifications by Kant. Subsequently, I provide partial criticism of this (...) justification, resulting in the recognition of the admissibility of ex vivo transplantation. Secondly, I analyse the Kantian slippery-slope argument which, as some philosophers believe, supports banning trade in human organs. It turns out, however, that this argument has wider application, namely it applies to all forms of the instrumental treatment of the human body. Using a previously introduced distinction between organs of the first and the second order, I show that the slippery-slope argument is inconclusive. However, I propose a reinterpretation of this reasoning, which results in using this argument as an additional reason to support prohibiting trade in human organs. (shrink)

Organ trafficking is officially banned in several countries and by the main Nephrology Societies. However, this practice is widespread and is allowed or tolerated in many countries, hence, in the absence of a universal law, the caregiver may be asked for advice, placing him/her in a difficult balance between legal aspects, moral principles and ethical judgments.In spite of the Istanbul declaration, which is a widely shared position statement against organ trafficking, the controversy on mercenary organ (...) donation is still open and some experts argue against taking a negative stance. In the absence of clear evidence showing the clinical disadvantages of mercenary transplantation compared to chronic dialysis, self-determination of the patient may conflict with other ethical principles, first of all non-maleficence. The present paper was drawn up with the participation of the students, as part of the ethics course at our medical school. It discusses the situation in which the physician acts as a counselor for the patient in the way of a sort of “reverse” informed consent, in which the patient asks advice regarding a complex personal decision, and includes a peculiar application of the four principles to the donor and recipient parties. (shrink)

Abstract -/- The Crisis and Disaster Management process (CDMP) is composed of several clearly defined phases. Strategic risk assessment; preparation and planning, effective response and recovery, and post-crisis evaluation. It is essential for those facing such threats to understand, appreciate, and implement the appropriate responses for each phase. Public service organizations, or PSOs, are increasingly charged with additional duties and responsibilities that historically were not part of their original purview. PSOs are currently forced to operate within an environment of increasing (...) political unrest and social chaos. Events of international magnitude now impact the domestic environment. These organizations must deal with negative media, hostile public backlash, increased scrutiny, and calls for greater accountability. Service organizations are currently faced with increasing political and social chaos, with widespread civil unrest, domestic and international threats of terrorism, human trafficking and illegal migration, public health emergencies, natural disasters, and diverse climate-related challenges. These conditions have fostered additional layers of responsibility to already overburdened first responders and their civil support partners. The consequences are significant. These previously mentioned burdens are further compounded by budgetary constraints, greater regulatory compliance, and organizational accountability. In other words, agencies and departments are expected to do more with less, much more with much less. -/- DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.108408. (shrink)

The Philippine government officially responded to the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and the related WHO Guidelines on organ transplantation by prohibiting all transplants to foreigners using Filipino organs. However, local tourists have escaped the regulatory radar, leaving a very wide gap in efforts against human trafficking and transplant tourism. Authorities need to deal with the situation seriously, at a minimum, by issuing clear procedures for verifying declarations of kinship or emotional bonds between donors and (...) recipients. Foreigners who come to the country for transplants with same-nationality donors constitute a problem that is replicated in many transplant centers around the world. Also, emotionally related living donors continue to pose challenges for ethics committees, especially because of the realities associated with the existence of extended families. Those who find themselves facing these issues need to be armed with clear protocols for going through the process of verifying documents and individual declarations assiduously. There is also a need for international referral mechanisms at least to ensure that governments are aware when their citizens travel for transplant so they can take steps they consider suitable to address the vulnerabilities of exploited persons. (shrink)

Australia and Thailand have made great progress in partnering with NGOs to respond to HIV/AIDS through the protection of human rights. Unquestionably, the Australian experience is more advanced. However, it is important to note that Australia’s political institutions and traditions were able to empower and accept an NGO movement of this nature almost from the start of disease identification.Thailand did not have this advantage, having only moved toward political institutions that are open to public opinion and civil society’s input within (...) the last 15 years.In spite of their varied histories, both countries eventually traveled down similar paths. In Australia, HIV/AIDS NGOs moved rapidly forward from being standard-setting, fact-finding, and advocacy organizations to becoming capable of creating new HIV/AIDS umbrella organizations and influencing existing governmental organizations on HIV/AIDS human rights issues. Indeed, by the close of the 1980s, NGOs had established themselves firmly in all of these roles. The fact that Australia still struggles with addressing an emerging epidemic among indigenous people is more a sign that the movement has thus far been incomplete than that it is faltering or ineffective. Additionally, now that NGOs are actively working through AFAO on behalf of indigenous peoples, it is likely that there will finally be more movement on human rights and H1V/AIDS issues for this group. However, sex tourism and the illegal trafficking of women and children for purposes of prostitution continue to require ongoing proactive management by the partnership before they become a serious epidemic threat.Thailand’s situation is somewhat different from that of Australia. The HIV/AIDS NGO community has grown since the epidemic exploded in the 1990s, but the organizations themselves continue to have limited power, While they have been an important voice in human rights standard-setting, fact-finding and advocacy regarding HIV/AIDS, they remain unable to fully influence the governmental organizations that ultimately make and implement human rights policies in these areas. As the NGO experience in general is new to Thai politics, continuing human rights abuses are a sign of the miles left to travel on this road rather than an indicator that the road needs to be abandoned.Regardless of their differing experiences with creating HIV/AIDS partnerships, it is impossible to say that either effort has failed to use this mechanism successfully to at least begin seriously addressing HIV/AIDS human rights issues. What can be said is that each partnership can be placed at a differing point on a continuum of effectiveness that ultimately concludes with a fully integrated partnership capable of fundamentally influencing a country’s HIV/AIDS human rights policies on an ongoing basis. (shrink)

Statutes criminalizing behavior that risks transmission of HIV/AIDS exemplify use of the criminal law against individuals who are victims of infectious disease. These statutes, despite their frequency, are misguided in terms of the goals of the criminal law and the public health aim of reducing overall burdens of disease, for at least three important reasons. First, they identify individual offenders for punishment, a paradigm that is misplaced in the most typical contexts of transmission of infectious disease and even for HIV/AIDS, (...) despite claims of AIDS exceptionalism. Second, although there are examples of individuals who transmit infectious disease in a manner that fits the criminal law paradigm of identification of individual offenders for deterrence or retribution, these examples are limited and can be accommodated by existing criminal laws not devoted specifically to infectious disease. Third, and most importantly, the current criminal laws regarding HIV/AIDS, like many other criminal laws applied to infectious disease transmission, have been misguided in focusing on punishment of the diseased individual as a wrongful transmitter. Instead of individual offenders, activities that enhance the scale of disease transmission—behaviors that might be characterized as ‘transmission facilitation’—are a more appropriate target for the criminal law. Examples are trafficking in human beings (including sex trafficking, organ trafficking, and labor trafficking), suppression of information about the emergence of infection in circumstances in which there is a legally established obligation to disclose, and intentional or reckless activities to discourage disease treatment or prevention. Difficulties remain with justifications for criminalizing even these behaviors, however, most importantly the need for trust in reducing overall burdens of disease, problems in identifying individual responsible offenders, and potential misalignment between static criminal law and the changing nature of infectious disease. (shrink)

Kidney transplantation is a lifesaving medical treatment. However, very high demand for kidneys with low kidney donation causes a black market that exploits patients’ desperation and donors’ vulnerability. The current kidney donation programs fail to produce promising results to avoid illegal and unethical kidney trafficking and commercialism. Even though the primary goal of kidney donation is to increase the number of deceased organ donations, in some countries, like Turkey, due to religious or cultural concerns, it is impossible to (...) supply adequate deceased kidney donations. In this view, the aim of this paper is to examine kidney trafficking in the scope of Turkey's current organ donation system and propose a new model, named the Incentivized Kidney Donation Model (IKDM), to increase kidney donation from living donors. The model encompasses the following benefits offered to kidney donors; lifetime health insurance, exemptions from copayments/contribution shares, priority when receiving an organ, priority when finding a job, income tax exemptions for salaried employees, and free or discounted public utilities. This normative model has the potential to promote donors’ altruistic acts as well as the solidarity and loyalty among members of a society without violating ethical values and internationally accepted principles. (shrink)

_Bodies for Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body Trade _explores the philosophical and practical issues raised by activities such as surrogacy and organ trafficking. Stephen Wilkinson asks what is it that makes some commercial uses of the body controversial, whether the arguments against commercial exploitation stand up, and whether legislation outlawing such practices is really justified. In Part One Wilkinson explains and analyses some of the notoriously slippery concepts used in the body commodification debate, including exploitation, (...) harm and consent. In Part Two he focuses on three controversial issues outlining contemporary regulation and investigating both the moral issues and the arguments for legal prohibition. (shrink)

This essay provides a brief overview of the rise of organ trade in Pakistan towards the end of the last century and the concerted, collective struggle—of physicians and medical associations aided by the media, journalists, members of civil society, and senior judiciary—in pressuring the government to bring about and implement a national law criminalizing such practices opposed by an influential pro-organ trade lobby. It argues that among the most effective measures to prevent re-emergence of organ trafficking (...) in the country is increasing ethical live donations and above all, establishing sustainable, public supported deceased donor programs. To do this, the transplant community must recognize that organ transplantation is not merely a donor-recipient-physician transaction but a complex issue in which decisions to donate an organ are influenced by indigenous values and belief systems about human illness, life and death. (shrink)

Addresses the issues at the heart of international medicine and social responsibility. A number of international declarations have proclaimed that health care is a fundamental human right. But if we accept this broad commitment, how should we concretely define the state’s responsibility for the health of its citizens? Although there is growing debate over this issue, there are few books for general readers that provide engaging accounts of critical incidents, practices, and ideas in the field of human rights, health care, (...) and medicine. Included in the book are case studies of such issues as AIDS among orphans in Romania, organ trafficking, prison conditions, health care rationing, medical research in the third world, and South Africa’s constitutionally guaranteed right of access to health care. It uses these topics to address themes of protection of vulnerable populations, equity and fairness in delivering competent medical care, informed consent and the free flow of information, and state responsibility for ensuring physical, mental, and social well-being. (shrink)

This article provides a brief introduction to some contemporary challenges found in the intersection of bioethics and international criminal law involving genetic privacy, organ trafficking, genetic engineering, and cloning. These challenges push us to re-evaluate the question of whether the international criminal law should hold corporations criminally liable. I argue that a minimalist and Strawsonian conception of corporate responsibility could be useful for deterring the wrongs outlined in first few sections and in answering compelling objections to corporate criminal (...) liability. (shrink)

In the 1970s “bioethics” emerged as a new interdisciplinary discourse on medicine, health care, and medical technologies, primarily in Western, developed countries. The main focus was on how individual patients could be empowered to cope with the challenges of science and technology. Since the 1990s, the main source of bioethical problems is the process of globalization, particularly neo‐liberal market ideology. Faced with new challenges such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, hunger, pandemics, and organ trafficking the bioethical discourse of (...) empowering individuals is no longer sufficient. Global bioethics nowadays is concerned with applying and implementing a universal ethical framework. Islamic bioethics has contributed to creating such framework (exemplified in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights) while at the same time it is continuously articulating and interpreting this framework in specific settings and contexts. (shrink)

In the 1970s “bioethics” emerged as a new interdisciplinary discourse on medicine, health care, and medical technologies, primarily in Western, developed countries. The main focus was on how individual patients could be empowered to cope with the challenges of science and technology. Since the 1990s, the main source of bioethical problems is the process of globalization, particularly neo-liberal market ideology. Faced with new challenges such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, hunger, pandemics, and organ trafficking the bioethical discourse of (...) empowering individuals is no longer sufficient. Global bioethics nowadays is concerned with applying and implementing a universal ethical framework. Islamic bioethics has contributed to creating such framework (exemplified in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights) while at the same time it is continuously articulating and interpreting this framework in specific settings and contexts. (shrink)

Bioethics has changed considerably over the last few years. Increased global interaction, through the off-shoring of clinical trials, cross-border surrogacy, organ trafficking, and medical tourism, among others practices, has brought additional considerations to a discipline that has been, until recently, relatively contained within national borders. We aim to contribute to the discourse on exploitation and vulnerability in a way that reflects such global changes. We will explore the link between vulnerability and exploitation, and argue that exploitation can be (...) understood as taking advantage of vulnerabilities, provided we recognize that vulnerabilities are often embedded within existing structural injustices. (shrink)

Trafficking and persistence of fetal microchimeric cells (fMCs) and circulating extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been observed in animals and humans, but their consequences in the maternal body and their mechanistic contributions to maternal physiology and pathophysiology are not yet fully defined. Fetal cells and EVs may help remodel maternal organs after pregnancy‐associated changes, but the cell types and EV cargos reaching the mother in preterm pregnancies after exposure to various risk factors can be distinct from term pregnancies. As preterm (...) delivery‐associated maternal complications are rising, revisiting this topic and formulating scientific questions for future research to reduce the risk of maternal morbidities are timely. Epidemiological studies report maternal cardiovascular risk as one of the major complications after preterm delivery. This paper suggests a potential link between fMCs and circulating EVs and adverse maternal cardiovascular outcomes post‐pregnancies, the underlying mechanisms, consequences, and methods for and how this link might be assessed. (shrink)

This article presents a review of Hard to Believe, a compelling documentary reporting the forced organ procurement and death of Chinese prisoners of conscience. The documentary is targeted to ignite political and public pressure to stop these practices that are thought to be motivated by financial and political gain. Narrated by journalist and author Ethan Gutmann, the documentary pricks at the collective conscience, as credible witnesses provide evidence that point to an abrogation of every ethical principle ascribed to legitimate (...) organ procurement. (shrink)

Volatile compounds, such as nitric oxide and ethylene gas, play a vital role as signaling molecules in organisms. Ethylene is a plant hormone that regulates a wide range of plant growth, development, and responses to stress and is perceived by a family of ethylene receptors that localize in the endoplasmic reticulum. Constitutive Triple Response 1 (CTR1), a Raf‐like protein kinase and a key negative regulator for ethylene responses, tethers to the ethylene receptors, but undergoes nuclear translocation upon activation of ethylene (...) signaling. This ER‐to‐nucleus trafficking transforms CTR1 into a positive regulator for ethylene responses, significantly enhancing stress resilience to drought and salinity. The nuclear trafficking of CTR1 demonstrates that the spatiotemporal control of ethylene signaling is essential for stress adaptation. Understanding the mechanisms governing the spatiotemporal control of ethylene signaling elements is crucial for unraveling the system‐level regulatory mechanisms that collectively fine‐tune ethylene responses to optimize plant growth, development, and stress adaptation. (shrink)

Reorganization of cell organelle‐deprived host red blood cells by the apicomplexan malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum enables their cytoadherence to endothelial cells that line the microvasculature. This increases the time red blood cells infected with mature developmental stages remain within selected organs such as the brain to avoid the spleen passage, which can lead to severe complications and cumulate in patient death. The Maurer's clefts are a novel secretory organelle of parasite origin established by the parasite in the cytoplasm of the (...) host red blood cell in order to facilitate the establishment of cytoadherence by conducting the trafficking of immunovariant adhesins to the host cell surface. Another important function of the organelle is the sorting of other proteins the parasite traffics into its host cell. Although the organelle is of high importance for the pathology of malaria, additional putative functions, structure, and genesis remain shrouded in mystery more than a century after its discovery. In this review, we highlight our current knowledge about the Maurer's clefts and other novel secretory organelles established within the host cell cytoplasm by human‐pathogenic malaria parasites and other parasites that reside within human red blood cells. (shrink)

Increasingly the body is a possession that does not belong to us. It is bought and sold, bartered and stolen, marketed wholesale or in parts. The professions - especially reproductive medicine, transplant surgery, and bioethics but also journalism and other cultural specialists - have been pliant partners in this accelerating commodification of live and dead human organisms. Under the guise of healing or research, they have contributed to a new 'ethic of parts' for which the divisible body is severed from (...) the self, torn from the social fabric, and thrust into commercial transactions -- as organs, secretions, reproductive capacities, and tissues -- responding to the dictates of an incipiently global marketplace. Breaking with established approaches which prioritize the body as 'text', the chapters in this book examine not only images of the body-turned-merchandise but actually existing organisms considered at once as material entities, semi-magical tokens, symbolic vectors and founts of lived experience. The topics covered range from the cultural disposal and media treatment of corpses, the biopolitics of cells, sperm banks and eugenics, to the international trafficking of kidneys, the development of 'transplant tourism', to the idioms of corporeal exploitation among prizefighters as a limiting case of fleshly commodity. This insightful and arresting volume combines perspectives from anthropology, law, medicine, and sociology to offer compelling analyses of the concrete ways in which the body is made into a commodity and how its marketization in turn remakes social relations and cultural meanings. (shrink)

It is hard to imagine a threat to international security or a tension within U.S. foreign policy that does not involve the imposition of economic sanctions. The United Nations Security Council has fourteen sanctions regimes currently in place, and all member states of the United Nations are obligated to participate in their enforcement. The United States has some thirty sanctions programs, which target a range of countries, companies, organizations, and individuals, and many of these are autonomous sanctions that are independent (...) of the measures required by the United Nations. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and others also have autonomous sanctions regimes, spanning a broad range of contexts and purpose. Most well-known are those concerning weapons proliferation, terrorism, and human rights violations; but sanctions are also imposed in such contexts as money laundering, corruption, and drug trafficking. States may also impose sanctions as a means to achieve foreign policy goals: to pressure a foreign state to bend to the sanctioner's will, to punish those who represent a threat to the sanctioner's economic or political interests, or to seek the end of a political regime toward which the sanctioner is hostile, to give but a few examples. (shrink)

Moshe Tati, a sanitation worker in Jerusalem, was among the first of more than a thousand mortally sick Israelis who signed up for illicit and clandestine ‘transplant tour’ packages that included: travel to an undisclosed foreign and exotic setting; five-star hotel accommodation; surgery in a private hospital unit; a ‘fresh’ kidney purchased from a perfect stranger trafficked from a third country. Although Tati’s holiday turned into a nightmare and he had to be emergency air-lifted from a rented transplant unit in (...) a private hospital in Adana, Turkey back to Israel, Moshe became a poster-boy of transplant tourism for the next decade. João Cavalcanti was among the first of 38 residents of the slums of Recife recruited by retired military Captain Ivan da Silva and his sidekick Captain Gadddy Tauber to travel to Durban, South Africa to provide a spare kidney to an Israeli transplant tourist in Durban. This article examines the logics and practices through which kidney buyers and kidney sellers, organs brokers, surgeons and their accessories convince themselves that they are engaged in an illegal but still mutually beneficial ‘medical-recreational’ adventure, an ‘extreme medical sport’ of sorts. While life, health and survival motivate ‘transplant tourism’, a euphemism for human trafficking in spare body parts, the freedom to roam, mobility, is an essential feature of transplant tours for kidney buyers and kidney sellers. (shrink)