1.This Act may be cited as the
Trafficking in Organs Victims
Protection Act
.
2.Congress finds the following:
(1)World Health Organization (WHO) officials
have estimated that approximately 10 percent of all transplanted kidneys
worldwide are illegally obtained, often bought from impoverished persons who
sell their organs out of desperation or harvested from prisoners.
(2)The Council of
Europe is investigating allegations made by Ms. Carla del Ponte, a former chief
prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia,
that approximately 300 ethnic Serbs in Kosovo were kidnapped in 1999 with their
organs being forcibly removed for sale by their captors.
(3)The Special
Rapporteur for the Council of Europe’s Social, Health and Family Affairs
Committee, Mrs. Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, interviewed a number of coerced
kidney donors during a May 2003 visit to Moldova, who were all young men driven
by extreme poverty to sell their kidneys for a sum of $2,500 to $3,000, and
reported that the medical follow-up of these illegal organ harvesting
operations lasted no more than five days, after which the donors were sent back
on a bus to their home country, frequently causing permanent disabilities due
to complications from the operations.
(4)The Council of
Europe’s Special Rapporteur, Vermot-Mangold, also reported that the
recipients of these kidneys were estimated to have paid between $100,000 and
$250,000 for kidney transplants.
(5)On June 3, 2003, the Council of Europe’s
Special Rapporteur, Vermot-Mangold, testified that international criminal
organizations had exploited those in extreme poverty in nations in Eastern
Europe in order to harvest their organs for sale on the black market.
(6)Between 2001 and
2003, a South-African black market kidney transplant ring coerced over 109
impoverished people, mostly from Brazil and Romania, to travel to Durban, South
Africa, to forfeit a kidney for the promise of approximately $120,000, with
that payment sometimes not being provided following the operation.
(7)According to the
January 2007 report by David Matas and David Kilgore entitled, Bloody
Harvest: Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong
Practitioners in China, the Web site of the Organ Transplant Center of
the Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing, China, stated in 2004 that,
Our Organ Transplant Center is our main department for making money. Its
gross income in 2003 was 16,070,000 yuan. From January to June of 2004, income
was 13,570,000 yuan. This year (2004) there is a chance to break through
30,000,000 yuan.
.
(8)In May 2004, the
World Health Assembly passed a resolution urging its member-states to take
measures to protect the poorest as well as vulnerable groups from exploitation
by organ traffickers.
(9)On May 3, 2004, Radio Free Europe-Radio
Liberty reported that Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Lakali
announced that in 2003 the Interior department had made over 100 arrests on
charges of child abduction, and stated that the problem was growing as children
were being taken to be sold for sex or labor, or to provide human
organs
.
(10)On November 20, 2004, Xin Ren from
California State University stated to the International Bureau for Children’s
Rights Conference in Montreal, that, [In 2003] [c]hildren were often
either sold by their parents for little money or kidnapped and abducted by the
traffickers to have their organ(s) removed for transplant purpose. . . . [S]ome
people were even murdered in the process of forcible removal of their
organs.
.
(11)According to the January 2007 report by
David Matas and David Kilgore, from 2000 through 2005, the sources of the
organs used were not identified in an estimated 41,500 organ transplants that
were performed in China during that period.
(12)On March 30, 2006, the Police
Superintendent of Paranaque, Philippines, announced the arrest of a suspect
alleged to have been involved with a kidnapping syndicate in the region which
had been abducting children to remove and sell their organs on the global black
market, as in the case of one child who was discovered dead in Cavite,
Philippines, with his internal organs missing.
(13)In March 2006, a
children’s rights expert at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission,
Hengameh Anwari, stated, Other reports that cause concern indicate that
a number of children are abducted because of their body organs; they become
victims of trafficking to foreign countries especially for their
kidneys.
.
(14)In mid-November
2006, China’s Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged that executed
prisoners sentenced to death are sources for organ transplants, and Asia News
reported that Deputy Health Minister Huang had said he was cognizant of the
fact that too often organs come from non-consenting parties and are sold for
high fees to foreigners.
(15)Senator Patrik
Vankrunkelsven of Belgium reported that in November 2006 he called two
hospitals in China and was offered a kidney by each facility for the price of
50,000 Euros.
(16)According to the
January 2007 report by David Matas and David Kilgore, the Web site for the
China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre in May 2006
posted the following statements in its frequently asked questions section:
The First Affiliated Hospital of China was established in 2003
specifically for our foreign friends … Viscera providers can be found
immediately! … The supreme demotic [“people’s”] court, supreme demotic
law-officer, police, judiciary, department of health and civil administration
have enacted law together to make sure organ donations are supported by the
government … Our organs do not come from brain death victims because the organ
may not be good.
.
(17)On January 8,
2007, the Sun newspaper of London reported that a severe shortage of available
organs for transplant in the United Kingdom had contributed to that country
becoming one of the top recipients of illegally trafficked organs.
(18)In 2007, Pakistan
was identified by the WHO as one of the top destinations for transplant
tourism
.
(19)Pakistani
authorities in April 2007 raided a black market organ ring in Lahore that
consisted of doctors, officials, and middlemen who had abducted potential
donors, drugged them and removed their kidneys without consent to then sell for
profit.
(20)Dr. Zafar ul
Ahsan, a top urologist at Fatima Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, stated in
September 2007, Nearly 2,000 kidneys are transplanted in Pakistan every
year, and seventy percent are bought by foreigners from Saudi Arabia, the UAE,
Britain and Canada … A mafia is running Pakistan’s kidney transplant business
with agents paying $1,000 to poor donors and then selling their kidneys on the
black market for thousands of dollars.
.
(21)According to
organ trafficking specialists at the WHO, the country of Moldova ranks third as
a source of organs for sale on the global black market, with such human organs
frequently smuggled into neighboring Romania for delivery to underground
clinics located in several European Union member-states.
(22)In 2007, five
employees of the tissue bank at the Faculty Hospital in Brno-Bohunice, the
Czech Republic, were arrested and charged with illegal organ trafficking for
selling more than $340,000 worth of illegally obtained skin grafts to a tissue
bank in the Netherlands.
(23)In January 2008,
the Government of India’s Health Ministry released an estimate that more than
100,000 kidney transplants are needed in India each year, but only 5,000 are
performed legally.
(24)On February 13,
2008, the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UNGIFT)
hosted the Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking
, and cited in
its subsequent report that a lack of adequate laws against illicit organ
trafficking has created the opportunity for such illegal trade to grow and that
there were clear indications that organ trafficking was increasing and
frequently involved members of international criminal organizations.
(25)On April 12,
2008, police raided a black market organ transplant house near Manila,
Philippines, arresting three traffickers and discovering nine donors in the
house, one of whom stated to authorities that he had been promised $2,800 for
his kidney, and he was doing it because, I can barely provide for my
wife and children.
.
(26)On April 30,
2008, the Government of the Philippines passed a ban on transplants to foreign
citizens, except in cases of familial relations, in response to data showing
that kidney transplants from Filipinos to foreign recipients had increased over
60 percent between 2002 and 2006, which confirmed earlier reports of a thriving
illegal organ black market in the Philippines.
(27)On November 17, 2008, the Congress of the
Philippines passed a resolution which directed a Senate committee to
investigate the rising instances of child organ trafficking in the country, and
stated that the National Bureau of Investigation’s Human Trafficking Division
reported that, the abducted children are housed somewhere in Mindanao
where victims are supplied with vitamin supplements to keep their internal
organs healthy, and are then transported outside the country to undergo surgery
for organ transplants
.
(28)In November 2008,
Kosovar police searched a private clinic and found drugs and blood in plastic
bags, and charged two doctors for the crime of performing illegal organ
transplants.
(29)A February 2008
police raid on an organ trafficking ring in Gurgaon, India, found that men
posing as doctors to remove kidneys from migrant laborers conducted
approximately five hundred illegal kidney transplants over nine years, and
possessed a waiting list of potential recipients of those organs from Canada,
Greece, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and
the United States.
(30)On April 8, 2009,
the Global Post in Cairo reported that the Egyptian Government was considering
legal measures to increase the number of legal organ donations to meet demand,
which included a proposal supported by some in the religious community to
harvest organs from executed criminals, with or without their consent, as
Ministry of Health spokesman, Dr. Abdel Rahman Shahin stated, They [some
religious clerics in favor of the measure] are saying that when [convicts’]
organs are taken, they’re compensating for the bad they did.
.
(31)According to a
June 1989 report by Georgetown University’s Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute
of Ethics entitled, Anencephalic Infants as Potential Organ Sources:
Ethical and Legal Issues
, some European physicians have addressed the
shortage of human organs available for transplant by disregarding bioethical
standards and removing the vital organs from anencephalic infants, prior to the
medical determination of whether total brain death or cardiac death had
occurred, on the ground that these infants were “brain-absent” and could be
treated as if they were brain dead or, alternatively, that they were
sufficiently lacking in cognitive capacity that the usual moral constraints on
killing persons did not apply, which in effect authorized them to actively
cause the death of these infants.
(32)In November 2010, the Associated Press
reported that Netcare KwaZulu, a hospital in South Africa’s eastern
KwaZulu-Natal province, pleaded guilty to removing organs from five minors
between 2001 and 2003.
(33)On January 12,
2011, Doctor Yusuf Sonmez, who has been dubbed the Turkish
Frankenstein, was arrested in Pristina for his alleged participation in
illegal organ trafficking in Kosovo and Azerbaijan.
(34)On March 21,
2011, the Council of the European Union adopted minimum rules supplementing
the definition of criminal offences and the level of sanctions, which
strengthens the prevention of organ trafficking and the protection of those
victims.
(35)In May 2011, a
Kosovo court brought charges against five suspects for their alleged
participation in a network involved in trafficking people into the country, and
selling their kidneys for illegal transplants.
3.It is the sense of
Congress that—
(1)the kidnapping or coercion of individuals
for the purpose of extracting their organs for profit is abhorrent and in
contradiction of the ideals and standards for ethical behavior upon which the
United States has based its laws;
(2)the harvesting of organs from living
children, regardless of the level of brain activity, is a violation of the
human rights of the child and is a breach of internationally accepted medical
ethical standards described in World Health Organization Assembly Resolution
57.18 (May 22, 2004); and
(3)the illegal
harvesting and trafficking of human organs violates the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, in Article 3 which states, “Everyone has the right to life,
liberty and security of person.”, and Article 4 which states, No one
shall be held in slavery or servitude.
.
4.It shall be the policy
of the United States to—
(1)seek to end the
offensive practice of exploiting the poor and vulnerable for the purpose of
harvesting and trafficking their organs;
(2)combat criminal
trade in human organs; and
(3)promote the
dignity and security of human life in accordance to the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
5.Amendments to the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961Section 116(f)(1)(B) of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n(f)(1)(B)) is amended—
(1)in clause (v), by
inserting after mental and physical health care
the following:
, post-operative and rehabilitation care for victims of trafficking in
human organs (as defined in section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act of 2000),
; and
(2)by adding at the
end the following:
(x)The extent to which violations of the
country’s laws against trafficking in human organs (as defined in section
103(12) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000) have occurred, as
determined by the human rights officer at the United States embassy in the
country.
.
6.Amendments to the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000
(a)Section 103 of the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102) is amended—
(1)in paragraph
(2)—
(A)in subparagraph
(B), by striking or
at the end;
(B)in subparagraph
(C), by striking the period at the end and inserting ; or
;
and
(C)by adding at the
end the following:
(D)exploitation of a person through the
promise of granting of payments or benefits in order to compel or entice the
person to consent to the removal of one or more of the person’s organs for a
transplant operation, in a manner contrary to the standards described in World
Health Organization Assembly Resolution WHA 57.18 (May 22,
2004).
;
(2)in paragraph
(8)—
(A)in subparagraph
(A), by striking or
at the end;
(B)in subparagraph
(B), by striking the period at the end and inserting: ; or
;
and
(C)by adding at the
end the following:
(C)trafficking in human organs (as defined in
paragraph (12)).
;
(3)by redesignating
paragraphs (12) through (14) as paragraphs (13) through (15), respectively;
and
(4)by inserting after
paragraph (11) the following:
(12)Trafficking in
human organs
(A)The term
trafficking in human organs means—
(i)the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harboring, or receipt of a person, either living or deceased, for the purpose
of removing one or more of the person’s organs, by means of—
(I)coercion;
(II)abduction;
(III)deception;
(IV)abuse of power or
a position of vulnerability; or
(V)transfer of
payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over a
person described in the matter preceding subclause (I); and
(ii)the illicit
transportation and transplantation of those organs in one or more other persons
for profit or any other purpose.
(B)In subparagraph (A),
the term organ means the human (including fetal) kidney, liver,
heart, lung, pancreas, bone marrow, cornea, eye, bone, and skin or any subpart
thereof and any other human organ (or any subpart thereof, including that
derived from a fetus) specified by the President by regulation for purposes of
this
division.
.
(b)Interagency task
force To monitor and combat traffickingSection 105(d)(3) of the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7103(d)(3)) is amended by inserting
after the first sentence the following: Such procedures shall include
collection and organization of data from human rights officers at United States
embassies on host country’s laws against trafficking in human organs and any
instances of violations of such laws.
.
(c)Protection and
assistance for victims of traffickingSection 107(a) of the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7103(a)) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
(3)Definition of
victim of traffickingFor
purposes of this subsection, the term victim of trafficking means
only a person who has been subjected to an act or practice described in
paragraph (8) or (9) of section 103 as in effect on the day before the date of
the enactment of the Trafficking in Organs
Victims Protection
Act.
.
(d)Section 110(b)(1) of the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7107(b)(1)) is amended—
(1)in subparagraph
(E), by striking and
at the end;
(2)in subparagraph
(F), by striking the period at the end and inserting ; and
;
and
(3)by adding at the
end the following:
(G)with respect to trafficking in human
organs—
(i)a
list of the 10 countries determined to be the largest source of illegally
trafficked human organs during the period covered by the report and a list of
the 10 countries determined to be the largest recipients of illegally
trafficked human organs during the period covered by the report;
(ii)any actions taken
by each country listed under clause (i) to address and prevent trafficking in
human organs;
(iii)any cooperative
efforts by the United States and each country listed under clause (i) to
address and prevent trafficking in human organs through joint public awareness
campaigns; and
(iv)information
regarding practices of trafficking in human organs of each country listed under
clause (i) in the Department of State’s travel
advisories.
.
7.Amendments to the
State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956Section 42 of the State Department Basic
Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2714) is amended—
(1)in subsection (a),
by striking convicted of an offense described in subsection (b) of this
section during the period described in subsection (c) of this section
and inserting convicted of an offense described in subsection (b) or (c)
of this section during the period described in subsection (d) of this
section
;
(2)by redesignating
subsections (c), (d), and (e) as subsections (d), (e), and (f), respectively;
and
(3)by inserting after
subsection (b) the following:
(c)Human organ
trafficking offensesSubsection (a) of this section applies with
respect to any individual convicted of an offense under section 301 of the
National Organ Transplant Act (42 U.S.C.
274e).
.
8.Actions under the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act
(a)The President may
exercise the authorities set forth in section 203 of the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702) without regard to section 202 of
that Act (50 U.S.C. 1701) in the case of any of the following:
(1)The export of anti-rejection human organ
transplant drugs to countries identified by the Secretary of State as the
largest source of illegally trafficked human organs or the largest recipients
of illegally trafficked human organs in the report required under section
110(b) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C.
7107(b)).
(2)The travel abroad
by United States citizens for the purpose of participation in any activity
relating to human organ trafficking (as defined in section 103 of the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000).
(b)The
penalties set forth in section 206 of the International Emergency Economic
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) apply to violations of any license, order, or
regulation issued under this section.
9.No additional funds are
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act or any amendment made by
this Act.