Abstract

Legislative action in response to the organ trade has centred on the prohibition of organ sales and the enforcement of criminal sanctions targeting ‘trafficking’ offences. This paper argues that the existing law enforcement response is not only inadequate but harmful. The analysis is based on empirical data gathered in Cairo, Egypt, among members of the Sudanese population who have either sold or arranged for the sale of kidneys. The data suggest that prohibition has pushed the organ trade further underground increasing the role of organ brokers and reducing the bargaining position of organ sellers, leaving them exposed to greater levels of exploitation.

Highlights

  • Defined in terms of human trafficking the organ trade is nominally described as a feature of organized crime

  • Conceptualized as a human trafficking offence the organ trade has been framed within a narrow criminal paradigm underpinning a regime of punitive justice, which does nothing to address the structural conditions that produce demand for organ markets and/or the policy decisions that circumscribe the social mobility of the populations that service this demand

  • The data gathered as part of this study suggest that the criminal sanctions introduced in response to reports of organ ‘trafficking’ in Egypt have pushed the trade further underground

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Summary

Introduction

Defined in terms of human trafficking the organ trade is nominally described as a feature of organized crime. The social context in which vulnerability is produced is hidden behind a symbolic call for justice, targeting elusive criminal organizations operating at the transnational level. This emphasis on the transnational shifts the critical focus away from the legal and political processes that engender and sustain exploitative relations within borders. Contrary to official reports of organized crime groups recruiting donors from overseas and coercing them into organ sale (primarily in countries with weak border controls), this paper presents an alternative contextual insight into organ trading, grounded in empirical research undertaken in Cairo, Egypt. At the time of writing (2016) this is the first study to consider the perspectives of organ brokers and organ sellers

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