The illegal organ trade – a murky billion-dollar business that thrives in secret. Every day, over 8,000 people in Germany wait for a life-saving organ donation, while organs are traded like goods on the Internet.
The RTL magazine Extra has delved deep into this shadowy world and uncovered the story of a German mother who, in her desperation, is prepared to buy herself a “new life.”
The offers for organs are reminiscent of a package holiday – with prices between 105,000 and 150,000 euros for a kidney. But behind this apparent normality lies a dark truth.
The black market for organ trafficking is booming worldwide, even Germans fly to Africa to buy a “new life” through an organization.
Dr. Stefan Berger, a renowned nephrologist, sums it up: “What is happening here is extremely illegal. It is organized crime.”
The waiting time for a donor kidney in Germany is at least seven years – a period that many patients no longer have.
RTL travels to Kenya, where we meet several German patients within a very short space of time. This is no coincidence, but rather shocking proof that the offer of illegal organ trafficking is also gratefully accepted in Germany.
One of these patients is a woman in her mid-20s who is about to undergo her planned operation. “I’ve been on dialysis for almost seven years now,” the mother of a six-year-old child tells us. Her voice is firm, her decision is made. “But for me this is the last option, because I don’t know how long I would have to wait for a kidney in Germany.”
RTL reporters Vanessa Deubel and Burkhard Kress travel to Kenya to learn more about the illegal organ trade.
Vanessa Deubel and Burkhard Kress uncover the shocking reality of illegal organ trafficking.
The German woman is paying up to 125,000 euros for her new kidney. She is still waiting for the crossmatch result.
The blood from the donor and the recipient is mixed. If the crossmatch is negative, i.e. if compatibility has been proven, there is virtually nothing standing in the way of the transplant.
Illegal organization wants to convince potential customers
A few days after our meeting, the clinic sent a video from the German mother. “I am now here in Eldoret in Kenya and had my transplant on September 27th.” Her values are all apparently good, her body has initially accepted the kidney. “I have a urinary excretion and I am being treated very well here,” she says in the video, which is intended to show how “professional” everything is there. Any scepticism, any hesitation should be prevented as far as possible.
