Disturbing facts about illegal human organ trafficking you need to know

Human organ trafficking is done because of the high demand for healthy body parts around the world. In fact, on average, a person in need of a transplant has to wait three and a half years for a suitable organ to become available. In the US alone, around 120,000 people are waiting for organ donors. Desperation forces people to turn to the illegal side of the Organ Trade as their only option to survive, which makes the trade that much more lucrative.

With that being said, here are some disturbing facts about organ trafficking you probably didn’t know.

Organ trafficking mostly targets poor people

Unfortunately, organ traffickers focus their attention on the most vulnerable individuals who desperately need the cash – poor people. According to Listverse, a Spanish woman was so desperate to make ends meet that she marketed her kidney, the most sought after organ of the human body, and posted it online. The woman is a disabled single mother and needed the cash to support her daughter -- so much so that she also offered to sell other things, including a lung and her corneas.

According to the report, organ traffickers lure poor people to sell their organs for as much as $5,000. For the Spanish woman, that offer was too tempting to ignore, even though she risked a 12-year prison term if she was caught by authorities.

Children have become victims of the illegal organ trade

In order for an organ transplant to be a success, the organ has to be a one hundred percent match, which means it has to be the correct blood type, age, and size. Organ traffickers will do anything to meet the demand and they won’t simply wait for the right donors to come along, and instead, they sometimes find one themselves. Sadly, this is where children get involved in the illegal trade.

The most well-known child organ trafficking happens in the country of Mozambique.

According to the report, nuns from the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in Nampula have witnessed the effects of the child organ trade. They claim that they were able to speak to victims who escaped from the trade, in addition to the multiple abduction attempts at the orphanage that they established 30 years ago.

The nuns at the orphanage have even cared for the victims who had some of their organs removed. However, some of the children eventually died. Moreover, the nuns claimed they received death threats from the child organ traffickers as well.