"Robin Hood" of techno-Turkey or organ trafficking in the state of ethical beings.
Dr S. is a famous transplant surgeon in the Middle East. He operates "underground" on wealthy patients in different countries, from Israel to Turkey to Russia. The media refer to him as the "Organ Mafia doctor," and patients diagnosed with renal failure speak of him sardonically as "Robin Hood," acknowledging that he takes organs from the poor to give to the rich. But ethical issues of organ trafficking are not limited to marginal private clinics and "Mafia" doctors. All-living related organ transplants in Turkey involve similar ethical dilemmas: many related or nonrelated organ recipients pay their donors, and demand continues to rise. This paper explores practices in state and university hospitals and the ethical dilemmas doctors encounter to understand where and how judicial, cultural, and social categories of "human rights" and "crime" are constructed in our high-tech world.
Sanal
Aslihan
A
Program on the History and Social Studies of Science, Technology and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139, USA. sanal@mit.edu
D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000941:ethics; D019520:Living Donors / Q000941:ethics* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D033262:Narration; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics; D011203:Poverty; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000191:economics* / Q000941:ethics*; D014421:Turkey; D035862:Vulnerable Populations