Newsweek Report: Organ Trafficking is No Myth.(Brief article)

Srinagar, Asharq Al-Awsat- The horrific killings of 19 children and women in the Indian slum of Nithari, close to the affluent area of Noida on the outskirts of India’s capital, Delhi, has brought into focus the horrific trade of human organ trafficking that is claiming the lives of thousands of children worldwide.
The Jan. 19 issue of Newsweek magazine detailed an investigation into organ trafficking by Berkeley anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who spent more than a decade tracking the illegal sale of human organs across the globe. Posing as a medical doctor in some places and a would-be kidney buyer in others, she has linked gangsters, clergymen and surgeons in a trail that led from South Africa, Brazil and other developing nations all the way back to some of this country's best medical facilities, the magazine reports.

Azerbaijan probes child-organ traffickers

"Under the guise of adoption, children who are allegedly afflicted by grave diseases are taken out of Azerbaijan, ostensibly for treatment," Mr Abbasov told the country's ANS television.
"In the course of our investigations, it has come to light that these children are used for organ transplants, but we have no hard evidence," he said.
The results of the investigations would be passed to the Interior Ministry and prosecutors, he said.
Mr Abbasov acknowledged that people trafficking was a problem in Azerbaijan and other states of the former Soviet Union.

Europe

A network trading organs coming from Albanian children has been unveiled based on a report by the Greek embassy in Tirana published today by the Athens newspaper "TA NEA".

According to the report, the organs came from children, who were murdered in Albania, and were brought to Greece and Italy.

According to the newspaper report, the illegal network began its activities in 1994 and selected children with special needs mainly from Albania. Their organs were removed with the permission of their families or the directors of orphanages and instituti ons where they were hospitalized.

The transplant operations took place at hospitals in Italy and the mastermind of the network is allegedly an Italian professor. Regarding Greece, investigations focus on a gynecologist who works in a clinic at a city in central Macedonia, northern Greece .

Four Albanian doctors are also involved in the network as well as other five Albanians who acted as mediators.

sources:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-195371573.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3513439.stm

http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=7723