Gruesome Crime: Selling Diseased Human Organs

Human tissue and organs sales: an underregulated business.

By Kaiden Waldram, Marketing —

For some people, like myself, the idea of human body parts is a bit disturbing. I’ve never been able to watch people donate blood, receive an injection, and the idea of watching a human undergo surgery is very disturbing to me.

Science and Research

A recent article I read entitled, ’Body Broker Who Sold Diseased Remains Is Convicted of Fraud’, was extremely disturbing for me. It talks about a man named Arthur Rathburn who bought and sold human body parts for science and research. In an attempt to increase profit margins he sold all kinds of body parts, and went as far as to sell diseased body parts, which is both unethical and illegal. He was caught and is currently awaiting sentencing, which could incarcerate him for twenty or more years.

Poorly Regulated Business

According to the article, the buying and selling of body parts for research is a very poorly regulated business. I imagine this business model is difficult to keep track of. The regulations that are in place are somewhat ambiguous. Despite these flaws in the system, this was something that should have been checked into sooner. Selling diseased body parts for scientific research is extremely dangerous and needs to be prevented.

Monitoring

Perhaps requiring a government license for those selling body parts would solve the problem. These licenses would need to be renewed yearly with each applicant being required to take a test about their business practices. What sort of test could monitor this? A company called Converus® has a product called EyeDetect® that could be the source of evaluating these applicants. EyeDetect® is similar to a polygraph, but it is more time efficient as well as cost-efficient for an eye detection software. By taking these few precautions the government could strive to avoid this issue from happening further.

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Photo by / Piron Guillaume