Walls of Secrecy and Silence in the Human Organ Trade: Facilitating, Concealing and Laundering Illegal Transplants

This project investigates how medical and legal institutions facilitate illegal organ transplants, aiming to inform policies and solutions to combat this growing global crime.

Subsidie
€ 1.499.955
2025

Projectdetails

Introduction

The organ trade is a relatively new but neglected crime that is proliferating globally. The trade is prohibited universally; however, the growing gap between organ supply and demand has led to an ‘illegal’ organ market that converges with altruistic organ procurement systems.

Patient Exploitation

In this market, growing numbers of desperate patients from the global north travel to the global south to buy organs, often returning with severe medical complications. Similarly, the growing global economic divide and the rise in conflicts and natural disasters are subjecting increasing numbers of vulnerable organ sellers to physical, psychological, and financial exploitation on the organ market.

Research Gaps

Preliminary scholarly work increasingly suggests that this trade is embedded within medical/legal institutions. There is, however, a critical lack of research and knowledge on how the medical sector, such as hospitals and clinics, and other legal businesses facilitate, conceal, and launder illegal transplants.

Research Objectives

This proposed research aims to understand how, where, and why medical/legal businesses facilitate, conceal, and launder illegal transplants and assesses the implications for anti-organ trade responses.

Methodology

This project addresses these knowledge gaps through an innovative research program that combines:

  1. Online research
  2. Fieldwork
  3. Research of the most recently prosecuted cases across the global north and south

It is guided by a unique conceptual framework that combines notions from criminology, transplant medicine, and medical ethics.

Significance

By doing so, this project generates a potentially ground-breaking line of research that radically departs from popular portrayals of the trade as an ‘external’ organized crime. It advances our understanding of the trade as a socio-medical problem that is nested within medical/legal institutions.

Implications

Insights will be crucial for scientists, policymakers, transplant societies, and law enforcement to develop inventive solutions to prevent and disrupt illegal organ transplants.

Financiële details & Tijdlijn

Financiële details

Subsidiebedrag€ 1.499.955
Totale projectbegroting€ 1.499.955

Tijdlijn

Startdatum1-4-2025
Einddatum31-3-2030
Subsidiejaar2025

Partners & Locaties

Projectpartners

  • ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAMpenvoerder

Land(en)

Netherlands

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