The following blog post is by student staff member Olivia Graef.
Organ trafficking. This has to stop. It makes my stomach
sick; I can only do so much research on it at one time before I must stop. I
can only handle so many stories of children having their eyes gouged out,[1]
of organ harvesting done without anesthesia,[2]
and of people debilitated from having their organs taken.[3]
A desperate person willing to sell his kidney may get as little as $2,500.[4]
Others have their organs simply cut out of them with no pay. For instance,
China harvests an estimated 11,000 organs a year, and many of these come from
political prisoners and a targeted religious group, Falun Gong.[5]
Still it is an extremely difficult challenge due to the
extremely high demand; people in wealthy countries demand organs. Their lives
are at stake. However, other lives are at stake as well. Who survives? This has
resulted in “transplant tourism” or “organ tourism. China has become a huge
destination for transplant tourism.[6]
Mr. David Matas is a prominent immigration and human rights lawyer who is
trying to further expose and end these tragic crimes.[7]
“The practice made international headlines in 2006 with a report by
Winnipeg-based human rights lawyer David Matas, who was nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize for his work. He turned that study into a book, Bloody Harvest: The
Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs.”[8]
The worries of law school pale in comparison, and I become
ashamed for ever having harbored so many anxieties over exams, briefs,
footnotes, and other deadlines. I forgot why I came to law school as I stumbled
through the rule against perpetuities and multiple levels of hearsay
exceptions. I never thought I would go to law school. I never saw myself
writing up contracts or practicing tax law. But then I encountered the Center
for Global Justice. When I realized that lawyers could fight human and organ
trafficking through their legal work, I was hooked. I came to law school and am
working for the Center for Global Justice in the hopes that they will better
prepare me to be more effective in combatting this horrible, bloody trade of
human organs. However, the wonderful aspect of the Center for Global Justice is
that I do not have to wait to get a J.D. to do legal work on serious human
rights issues!
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