British cutbacks stimulate criminal organ trade

This video says about itself:

Cruel Harvest: Exposed organ trafficking cashed in on poor & prisoners

After years of ignored claims, organ trafficking in Kosovo has finally reached prosecutors. At least seven people have been charged on suspicion of luring poor people to sell their kidneys with false promises of cash. ­The group is said to have targeted poor people from Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania by offering them around $20,000 for coming to Kosovo to have operations performed.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Debt-laden public told to flog organs

Wednesday 03 August 2011

by Louise Nousratpour

Cash-strapped people in Britain were told today that they should be able to sell off their body parts in order to reduce their debts.

Desperate donors would be able to sell a kidney for £28,000 under the plans floated by University of Dundee Professor Sue Rabbit Roff.

It is currently illegal under the Human Tissue Act to buy or sell organs for transplantation in Britain.

But the professor said that legalising the trade could help people pay off student debts.

“It would be an incentive across most income levels for those who wanted to do a kind deed and make enough money to, for instance, pay off university loans,” she said.

Prof Roff suggested the “live donor” plan as a way to boost the supply of vital organs for transplant, though she admitted in passing that this “might exploit poor people.”

But Dr Calum MacKellar of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics said that the entire plan rested on there being enough people in society desperate for cash.

“To place a financial value on human beings or parts of human beings undermines the inherent dignity of the human person and the innate as well as unmeasurable worth of all individuals,” he said.

British Medical Association ethics expert Dr Tony Calland warned that a cash-for-organs scheme could push people weighed down with debts to ignore the “small but significant” dangers of the procedure.

It “could lead to donors feeling compelled to take these risks, contrary to their better judgement, because of their financial situation,” he said.

And Prof Roff’s proposal was branded “horrific” by National Union of Students president Liam Burns.

“She appears to be suggesting that the sale of body parts is an acceptable consequence of higher tuition fees, but that it would be particularly appropriate for those with less money,” he said.

“Work to increase donors is to be welcomed, but something is very wrong when students are encouraged to sell off body parts to fund their education.

“I hope the government are paying attention to the kinds of things that are being suggested as a consequence of them pushing students towards ever higher debt.”

Meanwhile, in the present economic recession in the USA, women students in desperation about their college education debts, are turning to prostitution to make ends meet.

US’s richest 400 could pay off all the nation’s student loans & still be billionaires: here.