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Trade in body organs leaves trail of victims

Yuri Para remembers bitterly the day he met the man who bought his kidney.

The buyer's name was Mikhail, an ex-boxer from Russia. Yuri was paid US$5,000 for the organ -- a transaction which sent his health into an irreversible spiral.

Para, 22, was one of three Moldovan men who traveled to a private clinic in Turkey and sold their own organs in an attempt to lift themselves out of grinding poverty.

He is just one of hundreds of victims of a growing international trade which originated in the former Soviet Union and is often run by organized gangs of criminals.

Evidence is now emerging that illegal transplant operations are being carried out in Italy, say European officials, who are urging emergency legislation to stop the trade.

In an interview, Ruth Gaby Vermot Mangold, who is investigating the issue for the Council of Europe, said: "The problem is getting worse and growing as the need for kidneys and livers is growing."

As success rates for transplants rise, so does the need for donors. She said they were increasingly concerned at attempts by some European countries -- spearheaded by a medical conference held in Germany this year -- to ease legal restrictions on organ donations, facilitating the criminal sale of organs.

A report for the Council of Europe was requested by an Italian MP concerned about the spread of the traffic.

"We know there are kidney buyers and sellers in Italy," Mangold said, adding that they had yet to track them down.

She highlights Para's case as a rare testimony. An unemployed driver from Chisnau, he was told by friends how he could sell his kidney. Now he sits at home all day watching television, his health crippled by the operation, living on a state pension that is little more than a pittance. The average wage in Moldova is US$33 a month.

"Everybody here in Chisnau knows there are private clinics in Turkey," he said. "They look here for people who are interested and then you sign a contract. There are many people like me. They told me that everything is voluntary and this is not a criminal affair. It was my biggest mistake."

He said donors are generally young, probably in their 20s. Para travelled with two other Moldovan men on Feb. 21 to Istanbul. They were taken to the private clinic late at night, and left early in the morning five days later. "One of us ran away," he said.

"The man who got my kidney is an ex-boxer. His wife is from Israel and his name is Mikhail. I spoke to him on the fourth day after the transplant and he told me he was 45 and his kidney was damaged in the fights. He asked me if everything was OK. He said: `Do you have the 20,000 greens dollars?' I immediately understood what had happened. I only got US$5,000. Another man got only US$3,000."

The report claims that Mikhail paid over US$200,000 for his new kidney while the "[donor's] state of health deteriorated in the medium term due to the absence of any kind of medical follow-up, hard physical work and an unhealthy lifestyle."

Moldovan police admit they have little to go on, gleaning information only when cheated donors such as Para come forward.
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