Kidney transplantation is a ‘victim of its own success’. Before the medical community mastered transplant capability, the choice of patients with kidney failure was either hemodialysis or death. Following the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, there was a phenomenal rise in organ transplantations, with a substantial unmet demand for donor organs. The demand for transplantations further rose when countries in the Global South established proficiency and offered transplant facilities at a nominal cost. The unmet demand led to an illicit organ market in certain countries of the Global South. In this market, organs travelled from the poor to the rich, female to male, and from weak to powerful. This presentation is focused on a study conducted in four Indian metropolises between 2012 and 2016. The study examined the magnitude, socio-economic, and medico-legal factors sustaining the illegal kidney trade in India and the potential countermeasures. Medical professionals, transplant coordinators, commercial organ donors and recipients, government health officials, and charity sector organisations were interviewed in the study. The findings showed that significant demand-supply gaps in organs, poverty and debt, medical malpractice, and legal loopholes are sustaining the trade. Financial compensation offered short-term relief to the impoverished sellers from a huge debt, and for the buyers, it was a desperate attempt to save a life. Women are more likely to give up their organs than men. A multi-faceted approach combining poverty alleviation measures, increasing the supply of organs, and stringent regulatory and preventive measures is likely to control the trade. 

Saradamoyee Chatterjee is a Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in Land Economy at Lucy Cavendish College. She was an Affiliated Lecturer at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge (2019 – 2023). At the Centre, she led a course for the MPhil students that discussed key aspects of migration, forced migration, and human and organ trafficking. Before this, she was a post-doctoral Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge. Her research explored the illegal organ trade in India. She completed a PhD from the University of Delhi, India. Her research interests explore the intersections of migration, human and organ trafficking, gender, climate change, and disability. Her latest publication is a co-edited book, ‘Coercion and trust: A multidisciplinary dialogue’ (London: Routledge, 2024).