followthethings.com
Health & Beauty
“Kidney Trade“
Research mapping by followthethings.com intern Eeva Kemppainen.
followthethings.com intern Eeva Kemppainen is reading academic and activist work on the illegal trade in human organs. How they’re obtained, from whom, by whom, where in the world. How they’re transplanted, into whose bodies, by which surgeons, where in the world. Everybody and everything in between. The international criminal investigations and court cases where it comes to the surface. The covert journalism and ethnographic research that exposes it. It’s the most labyrinthine and startling example of ‘follow the thing’ commodity tracing and activism. But there’s no one example we can feature on our site. But something like this needs to be in our collection. Eeva does this by taking passages from lots of academic and newspaper articles that mention specific places, notes what aspect of the illegal kidney trade takes place there, and adds them as points on a google map. What she maps is an amazing, complex world of illegal activities, (un)ethical academic and journalistic practices, and the connected lives of differently desperate ‘donors’ and ‘recipients. How real can it make the traffic of these organs seem? See for yourself.
Page reference: Eeva Kemppainen (2012) Kidney Trade. followthethings.com/kidney-trade.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
Estimated browsing time: 35 minutes.
Introduction
Below there’s a special kind of world trade map telling stories of commodified human organs, kidney “producers” and “consumers”. Click the symbols on the map that reveals some hidden social relations linking countries and people together…
The ideal conditions of an ‘open’ market economy have … put into circulation mortally sick bodies traveling in one direction and ‘healthy’ organs (encased in their human packages) in another direction, creating a bizarre ‘kula ring’ of international body trade. … These new transplant transactions are a strange blend of altruism and commerce; consent and coercion; gifts and theft; science and sorcery; care and human sacrifice. …networks of organized crime (and so called ‘body mafia’) that are putting into circulation ambulatory organ buyers, itinerant kidney hunters, outlaw surgeons (Source: Scheper-Hughes 2003 p. 19).
This map shows core areas and cities of kidney trade and transplants. Some areas might have several symbols. You can click all the symbols that then reveal facts about kidney trade through quotes, pictures and videos from newspapers and articles.
View Kidney Trade in a larger map.
Map Symbols
A red cross: marks a place that is mentioned in the newspapers and articles as a kidney “production” region with people who usually are poor and willing to sell a kidney or people whose kidney has been stolen from them.
A dollar: marks a place that is mentioned in the newspapers and articles as a kidney “consumption” region with people who usually are sick, rich and willing to buy a kidney or a region where the ‘kidney mafia’ comes from.
A hospital bed: marks a place that is mentioned in the newspapers and articles as a kidney transplant city / region or a specific hospital under kidney trade investigation.
A blue drop symbol: marks a place that is mentioned in the newspapers and articles as a central city, ‘a capital city’ in organ trade.
Discussion
Created by Eeva Kemppainen as part of a nicely-paid followthethings.com internship, edited by Ian Cook (last updated September 2012).
Sources
Adler, J. (2008) Are Kidneys a Commodity? The Daily Beast 17 May(http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/05/17/are-kidneys-a-commodity.html last accessed 5 July 2012)
alur (2009) comment on: Johnson C. K. & Goldman, A. (2009) Man says he sold kidney in U.S. for $20k.current.com 18 August (http://current.com/1hhdm4c last accessed 9 July 2012)
Amy from Manhattan (2009) comment on: The Brian Lehrer Show – Illegal Organ Trafficking.wnyc.org 24 July (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2009/jul/24/illegal-organ-trafficking/ last accessed 9 July 2012)
Anon (nd) Google Books reader’s review on: Kidney For Sale By Owner: Human Organs, Transplantation, And The Market. books.google.co.uk (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1pAJy-HeZX4C&sitesec=reviews&hl=fi last accessed 8 July 2012)
+42 sources
Anon (2011a). Nancy Scheper-Hughes. Wikipedia 8 November [last modified] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Scheper-Hughes last accessed 8 July 2012)
Anon (2011b) Kidneygate: What the Netcare bosses really knew. Mail&Guardian, 29 April (http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-29-kidneygate-what-the-netcare-bosses-really-knew/ last accessed 5 July 2012)
Anon (2012a) Man booked for kidney sale advertisement. The Siasat Daily, 4 February (http://www.siasat.com/english/news/man-booked-kidney-sale-advertisement last accessed 8 July 2012)
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Image credit
Doctors on the operation room (https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/doctors-operation-room_25166284.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=2&uuid=c9ca8941-4469-4dc4-871c-c6f89703567e) by freepik (freepik).