HUMAN FETUS ILLEGAL TRADE WORLDWIDE

Shu Witz was a handsome boy going to college and studying without backs. While in college in Tianjin – couple of hours on train from Beijing – he was attracted to a beautiful girl Chen Lieu. Shu and Chen eventually fell in love and Shu invited her to a place from where they would reach and get married. Chen was very happy as she liked Shu very much – in time she reached the place where Shu would arrive and both would go, but Shu called and informed Chen that he is stuck with some work and told her to reach the place of marriage, Shu would follow. When she reached the address, she was shocked to find the place was actually a brothel and Shu had sold her for a price. Chen was introduced to prostitution which she still practices.

We come across terms like ‘human trafficking’, ‘organ trafficking’, ‘illegal organ trade’, ‘transplant tourism’, ‘organ purchase’ and others which are often used interchangeably with trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal, even where they would not refer to the same phenomenon.

I have tried to hold aloft some cases spewing out of China, Uzbekistan, Latin America and the Caribbeans to understand the brutal, animalistic trade and the fallout of this heinous filth - some of which are heart wrenching, frightful and have attracted international attention.

CHINA:

Human trafficking is rampant in China (picture above) and human placenta continues to be sold illegally, including on the internet, because of a steady demand for the organ’s unproven healing properties. Customers who buy placenta cook and eat it, while the organ is also sold to traditional Chinese medicine makers who use it in medications. Customers who buy placenta cook and eat it, while the organ is also sold to traditional Chinese medicine makers who use it in medications.

The practice, considered morbid by many, is not new and it continues to flourish. The usual sources to buy the human product are hospitals, medical waste treatment plants and funeral parlours, and adding each placenta could cost around 80 yuan (USD12). Subsequently, after being processed, it is sold to shops, Processing placenta into capsules has become a business as some feel uncomfortable to eat it directly.

UZBEKISTAN:

Although trafficking in person has decreased in Uzbekistan due to a number of government efforts, the sale of children has taken off in recent years. While financial difficulties force many young families to sell their new borns, unmarried girls are opting to do so primarily because of “purity” culture.

Uzbekistan adopted its first law against human trafficking in 2008 and updated it in 2020. Reportedly, nearly hundred non-governmental organizations also work in the country to eliminate it. The number of registered crimes related to human trafficking shrank from 574 in 2012 to just 74 in 2020. However, the trafficking of children has seen a relative increase compared to other types of human trafficking – in 2018, 35 percent of crimes related to human trafficking involved child trafficking; by 2019 that proportion was 43 percent. In 2017-2020, 185 crimes related to selling and buying children were registered. Often, the crime mostly involves women. In 2019, for example, 80 percent of people charged with a child sale were women.

There are three main explanations to this practice. One is “purity” culture, which dictates girls should not have premarital sex. The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan says that in many child trafficking cases, girls become pregnant before marriage and hide it from their families and neighbors. They give birth in other regions of the country, away from their home. The people who help them with delivery also arrange the sale of the baby.

The shame of being a non-virgin, especially giving birth without a husband, is detrimental for girls in Uzbekistan. “Non-virgin” girls have to settle for previously married or widowed men who are usually around a decade older or they become second wives. To avoid such a fate, girls either terminate their pregnancy or sell the new borns and restore their hymen.

How disgusting and abhorrent!!

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN:

The Latins have been working incessantly to eke out a workable modus operandi and after many deliberations have arrived at the Third Dialogue on Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Third Technical Dialogue on Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean comprises two panels emphasizing the following key topics: a) Specialized Prosecutors’ Offices on Trafficking in Persons and b) Integrated Services for TIP Victims.

The first panel, “Expert Knowledge to Enhance Effectiveness: Specialized Prosecutors against Trafficking in Persons”, addresses how these institutions are key instruments to increase the effectiveness of investigations, protecting and assisting victims and decreasing impunity. This panel facilitates the exchange of progress, challenges and recommendations that Specialized Prosecutors against TIP faces when identifying victims; conducting proactive investigations; protecting victims and witnesses; handling digital evidence; promoting interagency coordination; and facilitating transnational cooperation.

The second panel, “Protection and Comprehensive Services to Victims”, analyses the options for care, support and protection services for victims of trafficking throughout the judicial process. Additionally, it discusses referrals to and the provision of comprehensive and dedicated victims’ services - shelters, psychosocial support and preparation for employment among others. This assistance is key to the effective reintegration of victims into society, it is also particularly essential for victims in greater situations of vulnerability including children, migrants, LBTQ population, indigenous communities and people with disabilities.

ON THE SIDELINES (THE HEAL):

A disheartening encounter with a young patient convinced physician Kimberly Chang that medical professionals can play a key role in protecting victims of coerced sex and labour.

Kimberly Chang was fresh out of medical residency in 2003 when a 14-year-old girl stumbled into her room at Asian Health Services in Oakland, California. Reeking of marijuana, with bloodshot eyes and bruises all over her body, the girl asked to be checked for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Chang, bolstered by her master’s degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health got a sinking realisation that her patient was being forced into sex, addicted to drugs, and getting beaten up regularly.

Over the next few years, Chang would see the scenario repeated again and again among her mostly poor, immigrant patients.

Chang spent the entire evening negotiating with the 14 year old. The girl was willing to drive only with her “purchaser”- a man who bought unprotected sex from her three times a week. For two hours, Chang tried to persuade the man to drop the girl off at the emergency room. They did not come and it took another day before Chang and her colleagues tracked down the girl through her MySpace page and community contacts. This time, Chang personally arranged for someone to drive her to the hospital, where she spent two months recovering.

Chang is propelled by the belief that human trafficking should not be a law enforcement but rather a public health issue. “How could I make the health care system stronger, so that it could go toe to toe with the criminal justice system?” she says.

Teen patients came in high on drugs and physically battered. Chang learned to speak with them bluntly yet sympathetically, to identify who was being forced into sex, and to care for them without judgment. She also made a point of teaching them their rights.

Helping young people avoid the sex trade, or get out early, can slow the problem downstream. “By reducing the number of victims,” says Chang, “you can reduce the number of traffickers.”

Looking back at her most disturbing cases, Chang has seen that the right treatment and policies can change lives. The first 14-year-old girl who came in high and bruised? - Chang treated her STDs, encouraged her to leave the sex trade, and wrote her a letter of support to get into a health assistant training program. Now in her twenties and in a stable relationship, the young woman has a new outlook on life.

“Her main challenge today,” notes Chang, “is college algebra.”

Disclaimer: The names Shu Witz and Chen Lieu are imaginary and do not have any resemblance to any person(s) dead or alive.