Award-winning journalist Scott Carney gave a speech about the international organ trafficking trade at the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies on Thursday.
The talk on organ trafficking is part of the Buffett Center series “Human Rights Talks”, which aims to present the diversity of international human rights issues and to foster discussion on campus.
Carney, who spent six years investigating the issue, recounted his personal experiences with the illegal “Red Market,” which provides for 10 percent of all live organ transplants internationally.
The first-world demand for organs goes back hundreds of years, Carney said. He said as early as the 18th century, India became the primary supplier for human bones by selling up to 60,000 skeletons a year. Even today, bone factories on the Indo-Bhutan border generate skeletons for American biology classrooms, he said.
Socioeconomic factors play a crucial role in perpetuating the gruesome organ cycle. Victims come from impoverished, third-world countries and often willingly sell their organs to supplement their income, Carney said.
Medill senior Christie Thompson said she valued the talk because it stirred discussion within the audience about finding a potential solution to the problem.
“I think those types of conversations are actually more productive and conducive to actual action,” said Thompson, a codirector of Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights, which cosponsored the event.
Carney said his most haunting encounter was the case of an Indian boy sold into the international adoption market. Orphanages in India kidnap and sell village children into the adoption industry, he said, sometimes for $2000 a child. The boy, who was adopted by an American family, was not allowed to contact his birth family, Carney said.
“That is why this story continues to haunt me, because there’s no end to it,” he said. “It’s a continuing crime, and it shows how incompetent the authorities are in doing anything about it.”
The market depends on a false pretense of altruism, Carney said. Doctors and brokers engage in ethical rationalizations for their actions, claiming that they are helping others, he said.
Many people believe in a double standard, he said. Although many want to believe their bodies are above the corrupt logic of the market, they still want access to others’ body parts, he said.
“Everyone, no matter who you talk to, thinks they’re doing the right thing,” Carney said.
More than 50 NU students and faculty and Evanston residents attended the presentation. Many remained to discuss the ethical ambiguities of the market after the speech.
Communication graduate student Pavi Prasad said she appreciated the speech for highlighting the greater issue of poverty.
“I think it threw a light onto how poverty works across the world, and how dependent industries are built upon maintaining that poverty,” Prasad said.
Transparency is key to inserting ethics into the market, Carney said. He said ensuring that body parts are not labeled as commodities marks a crucial step in resolving the moral question.
“We need to make everything absolutely transparent,” he said. “We need to realize that when you buy a skeleton, it was a person.”
