Kidney selling racket busted

In a sting operation a secret government informant and an undercover FBI agent met Rosenbaum and convinced him that he was looking for a kidney for relative who was scheduled to undergo a transplant in the United States.

The culprit nabbed
The trap worked. The 58-year-old Rosenbaum revealed that he used to hoodwink the doctors and made them believe that the organ donor was a friend or relative. In reality, this was not the case. Rosenbaum connived with major overseas hospital syndicate.

These hospitals would buy organs from vulnerable people from poor countries and then sell these organs to the affluent patients in the United States. A kidney that was bought for a meager $10,000 was sold for as much as $160,000.

The racket involved many Israeli doctors, visa preparers as well as the officials who cared for the organ donors in the U.S. The money thus earned was split and shared amongst all these people.

Rosenbaum admitted to have brokered many such illegitimate deals. He had been in the business for a decade, revealed the FBI

The U.S. law on organ selling
Under U.S. law, it is illegal to knowingly buy or sell organs for transplant. The National Organ Transplant Act prohibits the sale of human organs.
Essentially, if you need a kidney transplant in the U.S. you do not have to find a friend or relative who is a match. All you can do is go on the transplant waiting list.

The law thus adds to the helplessness of the patients and his kith and kin. The patient, in reality, has very little choice but to undergo years of life-draining dialysis.

The Rosenbaum scandal throws open an important question about the usefulness of the Transplant of Organs Act in the present day world. According to estimates, an average person waits five years for a new kidney.

Many people do not survive that long. An estimated 10-20 people pass away every day waiting in vain for their new organ.