Human organs trade refers to an illegal and black market’s dealing with human body parts extracted without permission of a victim. Due to the high demand for illegal human organs, the global demand has more than doubled in the last two decades. The trade is expected to rise as the demand for organ transplantation fails to meet the supply. Traditionally the supply involves the voluntary donation of organs by dying or healthy persons. However, the few voluntary donations cannot satisfy the global market for organs including hearts, kidneys, livers, and sexual organs. Human trafficking has been the major factor leading to the growth of organs trade. Global bodies attempt to force countries to adopt strict penalties but monitoring of the trend has been futile. China and other Middle Eastern nations are the largest suppliers of illegal human organs globally. Human organs trade is illegal in the context that they are illegally extracted from victims and sold.
The article under review is Editorial: Harvest of shame: China should halt the sale of organs from executed prisoners by Columbus Dispatch. China is conforming to the global pressure to stop the harvesting of body organs from prisoners condemned to death by courts. China argues that the practice only aimed at saving other innocent lives in dire need of the harvested parts. The government also claimed that prisoners and their families were notified of the procedure. The question, in this case, is the following: is it right to harvest body organs forcefully from death inmates? Human organs’ harvesting from prisoners or any other unwilling persons is a criminal offense. China executes prisoners more than any other nation. Chinese Deputy Health Minister defended harvesting citing high demand for body parts and terming the death inmates as the best source. The frisky government regulation has opened the gate for illegal collection with the organs being sold to the highest bidder mainly to the western foreigners.