Organ Trafficking

The illegal recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person for the purpose of removing one of their organs for profit, most commonly a kidney, through coercion, deception, or exploitation of the victim's poverty, or the illegal trade in a human organ itself once removed, recognized under the United Nations Palermo Protocol as a specific form of exploitation constituting human trafficking. The World Health Organization and international bodies including the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism have documented organ trafficking as driven primarily by a severe global shortage of legally donated organs relative to demand, with victims disproportionately drawn from impoverished populations in a number of countries and organs often transplanted into a wealthier recipient traveling abroad specifically to obtain an illicit transplant, a practice known as transplant tourism.