Organ Trade in the International Context

• Main Authors: Ewelina LECH, Dorota FRAŃCZAK
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Security Management in Košice 2019-06-01
• Series: Košická bezpečnostná revue
• Subjects: transplantation; organ donation; organ trade; polish law; international law
• Online Access: http://kbr.vsbm.sk/2019/n1/lech_franczak.pdf

Organ trafficking for transplantation purposes, despite many legal regulations, still exists, what is more, it does not apply only to poor countries, but the whole world is struggling with it. Bodies for transplantation are permanently scarce resources. Paired organs are usually obtained from relatives. The situation becomes more difficult when a sick person needs a single organ, then it is usually taken from the deceased person. It is also worth noting that organs transplanted in this way are more often rejected by the recipient's organism. This article has been devoted to organ trafficking on an international basis. It presents legal regulations at the international level in the prohibition of the organ trafficking as well as under Polish law. There were discussed the positions of, inter alia, the United Nations, the European Union, the World Health Organization and the Council of Europe. There have been shown the similarities and differences in the approach to organ trafficking in the light of international law. The article draws attention to the fact that despite so many international law documents, this practice does not disappear, on the contrary, it is constantly growing. Therefore, it is worth considering the implementation of modern technologies for the production of artificial organs for transplants, as well as promote campaigns to make people aware of how important post mortem donation is.