Written by: Averroes
Lately, a recent unfortunate tragedy for Malaysia is that in Kuching, Sarawak a 48 year old man told a British newspaper of his involvement of selling human organs that is made on the global stage. He was arrested and submitted himself to the Kuching district police headquarters.
The Sarawak Deputy Commissioner Dev Kumar told the suspect to report to the police station at 1.45 pm as he knew that he was being hunted down by the authorities after he confessed to an undercover reporter from The Sun whom he had brokered sales of kidneys from those living in poverty. He had run this business since 2010.
The man would be remanded for 7 days which was applied by an investigating officer ASP Nor Elyanis Mohd Yusoff which was granted by Assistant Registrar Mosidi Husseini and he shall be investigated as under section 15 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (ATISPOM). The provision reads as follows that is,
"Any person who profits from the exploitation of a trafficked person commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding fifteen years, and shall also be liable to a fine not less than five thousand ringgit but not exceeding one million ringgit and shall also be liable to forfeiture of the profits from the offence."
Section 2 of the same Act also defines exploitation as "any illegal activity of the removal of human organs".
Trafficking is defined as "all actions involved in acquiring or maintaining the labor or services of a person through coercion, and includes the act of recruiting, conveying, transferring, harboring, providing or receiving a person for the purposes of this Act."
Coercion also then refers to as "any scheme, plan or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person."
This incident usually involves Rohingya, Bangladeshi and other illegal immigrants who are in desperate need of money.
Among other laws relevant to this issue is the Human Tissues Act 1975,
Organ and Tissue Transplantation Bill and the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Supress and Punish Trafficking in Person, Especially Women and Children (Traffikcing Protocol) 2000, and;
Declaration of Istanbul on Organ and Transplant Tourism (the 2008 Istanbul Declaration) and;
the World Health Organisation Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation (the Guiding Principles).
The Guiding Principles of principles 3 and 7 states that organ donors should willingly donate their organs freely without coercion, while physicians and healthcare professionals should refrain from conducting organ transplantation if it is known that the sourced organ has been obtained through coercion.
In the Istanbul Declaration (2008), Malaysia is a party to which it defines transplant commercialism as "a policy or practice in which an organ is treated as a commodity, including by being bought or sold or used for material gain."
This declaration also provides the term for travel for transplantation, "the movement of organs, donors, recipients, or transplant professionals across jurisdictional borders for transplantation purposes."
From those definitions, Malaysians have committed those actions by the explicit and implicit illegal organ enterprise. Though this document is non-binding as each country as their own sovereignty to dictate what laws shall apply in their country.
The Malaysian definition of trafficking in persons is somewhat similar to article 4(a) of Trafficking Protocol as most of the time, wealthy Malaysians would travel abroad especially to China and India as well. It is defined as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation."
Finally, the new bill of of the Organ and Tissue Transplantation Bill is where it targets to ban organ trading and advertising and address living organ donations that was not addressed by previously by the Human Tissues Act 1974.
This bill will make any individuals found guilty of organ trading will have to pay a fine of RM1 million and subject to a term of imprisonment of 20 years. Therefore, any person who wants to donate for living transplant operation must obtain approval from the Unrelated Transplant Approval Committee.
Our Director-general of Health, Dr. Noor Hisham, he discourages Malaysians to travel abroad for organ transplantation that is prone to infringe other countries jurisdictional regulations and laws.
Back to our current issue, The Sun journalists who managed to cleverly disguised themselves as kidney customers was told by the accused that he could sort for illegal transplant tourism packages for British nationals at a hotel.
He even bragged that he was the brainchild and architect of 45 illicit kidney sales, has more than 100 customers worldwide and promoted his deplorable business on Facebook to coax those who live in poverty globally on the black market to resort to sell their organs from their own desperation to survive.
His modus operandi involves the process of those willing to let their organs away would have themselves linked with potential purchasers. The sale of kidneys could reach up £85,000 to which is equivalent to RM460,000 and the person who will give up their organs would go for surgical operations in China or the Philippines which the payment will also be made for bribing the clinics.
Other than a person's financial status, organ transplant and its procurement is difficult because of scarcity and availability.
The man said that that for supplying the kidneys, it is worth up to £55,000 and an additional for the clinic abroad that is £65,000. In total, the man dropped the price to only £85,000.
According to the World Health Organisation, (WHO) there are about 130,000 organ transplants performed around the world and this only satisfy the 10% of demand of those in need of that procedure. What happens to the other 90%?
That is where the root of the problem also occurs. As of the year 2019, there has been 22,000 kidney failure patients who are pending for transplants and which caused them to find other routes abroad illegally.
Though, the author believes that if further punishments persists, then we are not actually curbing the actual problem. What the author suggests is that we should have a bio-printing machine to address the issue. The Ministry of Health could invest and develop such machine to produce and create new organs from a persons cell and tissues rather than forcing people to procure them through illegals means.
The bio-printing machine involves a computer-aided layer deposition to create living tissue, organ analogs to engineer it, regenerative medicine, pharmacokinetic and other biological studies to create a 3D model of the required organ.
Malaysian research universities are on the efforts and burning the midnight oil to master and reach the stage where this machine may alleviate all the problems suffered by those needing of money and organ transplantation. In the end, the kidneys, heart and livers would not longer be sold illegally but a person may have it at their own comfort and ease.
As of now currently, the Malaysian MediTeg at the University of Technology where its scientists are currently developing a blood vessel for use in coronary heart surgery and to bioprint skin for patients needing skin replacement because of burns and acne scars. Even in UKM, a person's fractured skull can be recuperated with bio-printing from result of an accident. Though more research and funding should be made in such regards.
This is because, the first computer was fat and large and could keep limited storage. However, as time progresses, modern computers have thinner monitors and a basic hard drive could keep up to 1 terra byte of data! Imagine getting a service for bio-printing which will be affordable and accesible in the near future!
Illegal trafficking, selling, contraband and organized crime would plummet and Malaysia would become a safer and harmonious country for all. Perhaps, a Malaysian could play a part in donating their organs though it is on their own free-will and consent when they know that they are about to pass away or knows that their likelihood of surviving from any maladies is slim.
Malaysia is among the lowest organ donation countries in the world with only 1.3% of Malaysians pledging to donate their organs. Countries with the highest organ donations include Spain, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.
The reasons why Malaysians do not perform organ transplantation is due to the overwhelming numbers of patients and the lack of basic tools to meet with the demand of organ transplantation surgeries as as Selayang Hospital, HKL, UMMC and Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz. Private hospitals would also have to participate actively in curbing the issue of organ transplantation.
The solution is that more manpower and expertise are needed for this field of organ transplantation which includes recruiting the youths and medical staffs, providing medical scholarships and paying for foreign surgeons.
Another reason is that maybe it is due to the stigma and cultural dogmas which caused the derision among the family members. Though, discussions and understanding among those of different customary groups and religion needs to be better. Startlingly, 57% of Malaysians are unwilling to give out their organs from their deceased relatives'
Therefore, Malaysians need to change this cultural taboo and become more aware of others and help people in dire needs.
References,
MARINAORGANTRAFFICKINGBIOPRINTINGACTUALGCBSJOURNAL.pdf
http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%20670.pdf
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysian-man-remanded-over-organ-trafficking-allegations
https://www.therakyatpost.com/2020/08/10/malaysian-man-alleged-mastermind-in-international-human-organ-black-market/
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/08/13/man-allegedly-involved-in-organ-trafficking-surrenders-to-sarawak-police
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/08/13/self-confessed-organ-trafficker-surrenders-to-sarawak-police/
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