Organ trafficking in Việt Nam driven by high demand, low rate of donation- experts

Organ trafficking in Việt Nam driven by high demand, low rate of donation: experts

HÀ NỘI — The number of human organ trafficking crimes has risen with increasingly sophisticated tricks and techniques, triggered by high demand and low rate of donation from dead brain donors, according to local authorities.

According to Senior Colonel Đinh Văn Trình, Deputy Head of Division  五, Criminal Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, the criminals are organised with each individual in charge of different tasks in the procedures, including approaching, getting to know buyers and sellers, negotiating, faking the documents, in order to legalise their criminal acts in the name of humanitarian, not-for-profit purpose.

They approach people who want to buy body organs at hospitals or look for buyers and sellers via social network platforms, then set the prices and legalise their acts with fake documents in order to send the buyers/sellers to hospitals to have organs removed and transplanted, Trình said at a conference on organ donation registration and the prevention of human organ and tissue trafficking held on Monday.

"Many brokers had been victims of this type of crime before and are aware of the high demand and profits. They collided and connected with other individuals to develop a ring,"大众Trình said at the event which was held by the Ministry of Health and Vietnam Health Economics Association.

"Benefits mostly go to brokers. They charge people in need of kidney VNĐ 八00 million to  一 billion (US$ 三 三, 八00- 四 二, 二00) a case but the seller gets VNĐ 二00 million to  二 五0 million only. Sellers do not want to reveal their identity, making it hard to identify brokers.”

According to Deputy Minister Trần Văn Thuấn after more than  一 五 years of implementation, many provisions of the Law on donation, removal and transplantation of human tissues and organs and the donation and recovery of cadavers have revealed shortcomings. Many are no longer consistent with practice, including regulations on registration of donations and the issue of prevention and combat of human tissue and organ trafficking.

He noted that the demand for tissue and organ transplants in Việt Nam was huge with dozen of thousands of cases in need of kidney and/or liver transplants and thousands in need of transplantation of other organs and tissues.

"More than  九0 per cent of donated organs transplanted in Việt Nam are from living donors. There have been illegal acts involved in the trafficking and brokering of trafficking of organs and tissues, leaving serious social consequences. It is imperative to improve the legal frameworks and have solutions to prevent and combat the trafficking of organs and tissues in Việt Nam,"大众he said.

He suggested we offer both online and offline registration to make it more convenient for those who want to donate.