Organ trade

Organ trade (also known as the blood market or the red market) is the trading of human organs, tissues, or other body products, usually for transplantation.^[1][2] According to the World Health Organization (WHO), organ trade is a commercial transplantation where there is a profit, or transplantations that occur outside of national medical systems. There is a global need or demand for healthy body parts for transplantation, which exceeds the numbers available.

As of January 2020^[update], there are more than 100,000 candidates waiting for organ transplant in the United States.^[3] The median wait time for heart and liver transplants in the U.S. between 2003 and 2014, was approximately 148 days.^[4]

Commercial trade in human organs is currently illegal in all countries except Iran. Recent bans on the commercial organ trade (e.g. India in 1994 and the Philippines in 2008) have increased the availability of transplants and the safety of the procedures. Despite these prohibitions, organ trafficking and transplant tourism remain widespread (however, the data on the extent of the black market trade in organs is difficult to obtain). The question of whether to legalize and regulate the organ trade to combat illegal trafficking and the significant global organ shortage is greatly debated. This discussion typically centers on the sale of kidneys by living donors, since human beings are born with two kidneys but need only one to survive.