"Inside the Body Trade." (illegal, death, speech, money)

[Miborn]

National Geographic Explorer takes you underground with the body brokers:

Across the U.S., thousands of people wait for a new organ, and often a second chance at life. But this year, fewer than half of those people will receive an organ, and many will die waiting. NGC correspondent Lisa Ling investigates.

Alistair Cooke's bones stolen by transplant gang - Telegraph
Alistair Cooke's bones stolen by transplant gang
By Alec Russell in Washington

correspondent Lisa Ling takes you on an underground adventure in the back alleys and off-the-beaten tracks of where human body parts are bought and sold.

From the alleys of Chennai, India, to hospitals in America, NGC "Explorer" travels the globe investigating the legal and illegal practices of organ donation.
“We were put in a hotel room and they instructed us to stay there and not talk to anyone. They gave us one day to rest. I was promised to be given the money as soon as the operation was complete.” — “Malaka,” Indian tsunami refugee who sold her kidney on the black market for $700.

Across the United States, more than 95,000 people wait desperately for a new organ.
This year, fewer than 30,000 will receive one. Each day approximately 17 people die, waiting.

This overwhelming demand has given rise to a global black market in body parts where some will do anything to get what they need.
How far will these desperate people go to save their own life or the life of a loved one?
Why are some patients forced to look for an organ on the black market? Where do these “spare parts” come from and how are they trafficked?



National Geographic Channel correspondent Lisa Ling pulls back the curtain of “transplant tourism” to answer these questions and examines the scientific breakthroughs that doctors hope will make people less dependent on human organs in "Explorer: Inside the Body Trade."


Premiering Sunday, November 11, at 10 p.m. ET/PT (with an encore on Wednesday, November 14, at 8 p.m. ET/PT),

Explorer: Inside the Body Trade takes you inside a different kind of afterlife, where the living are sustained by the bodies of the dead, or by the parts of those willing to sell their organs to the highest bidder.


National Geographic Explorer takes you underground with the body brokers - Smallscreen


This is so amazing to me it almost leaves me speechless.....well, almost!

[katzenfreund]

this reminds me off the movie "dirty pretty things", which is about the same issue. Chlling....

[evilnewbie]

Yeah, its a big problem and IT IS GOING ON IN THE U.S. as well. Funeral homes with morticians are notorious for participating in the black market trade as are hospitals that BUY from them (especially the orthopedic surgeons who graft these illegal body parts). What can be done? Well such disrespect for a person's life even after death deserves the death penalty in my opinion. Once the illegal trade is done there is nothing that can be done to undo it. You simply cannot take out an organ or bone graft from a patient. All we can really do is improve the lives of the poor overseas and moderate hospitals/funeral homes to ensure this horrendous practice is shut down.