Global Health Disparities and Trafficking of Human Beings for the Purpose of Organ Removal

There are many complex reasons why people sell and buy human organs and how global criminal networks benefit from this commercialization. This trade includes people who are trafficked for the purpose of removing their organs to sell them for profit. This chapter aims to understand these extreme behaviors by examining the intersectional relationship between inequitable access to health care in diverse populations across the globe. Disparities in health outcomes have the potential to encourage the trafficking of human beings for the purpose of organ removal. This chapter will firstly discuss general global health disparities and the particularities of chronic kidney disease since kidneys are more likely to be sold for profit. Secondly, wealth, national transplant systems, ethnicity, and gender disparities in organ donation will be related to organ trafficking. Finally, this chapter will also examine how the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated these intersectional disparities because of the direct impact on transplantation capabilities worldwide and increased vulnerability of populations at risk of trafficking.