Action against Organ Trafficking

An estimated 140,000 organ transplants are carried out annually in over a hundred countries, with some the result of commercial transactions. Although legislation forbidding organ sales exists in most countries, criminals are still making money from the suffering of people whose situations are so desperate they are willing to sell. The Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs is a milestone in the fight against organ trafficking as the first legal text to provide an internationally agreed definition and to pinpoint what exactly states need to criminalise in their national laws. It outlaws removal of organs without consent from a living donor or from a deceased person if it is not authorised under national laws, and removal from either living or dead people if money or recompense has been offered.

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