{"id":15527,"date":"2024-12-09T15:28:59","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T15:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?p=15527"},"modified":"2026-03-05T11:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:02:31","slug":"kidney-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?p=15527","title":{"rendered":"Kidney Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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followthethings.com<\/strong>
Health & Beauty<\/a>
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2012<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
UNBRANDED<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
HUMAN KIDNEY<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
SOURCED IN MANY COUNTRIES<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
TRANSPLANTED IN MANY COUNTRIES<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
INTERACTIVE MAP<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
CROSS CULTURES<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
SHOW CAPITALIST EVILS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
TEACH ILLICIT ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
CHOOSE THE RIGHT THING<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
EMBODY EXPLOITATION<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
TRACK & TRACE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“Kidney Trade<\/strong>“
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page reference: Eeva Kemppainen (2012) Kidney Trade.<\/em> followthethings.com\/kidney-trade.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estimated browsing time: 35 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The ideal conditions of an \u2018open\u2019 market economy have … put into circulation mortally sick bodies traveling in one direction and \u2018healthy\u2019 organs (encased in their human packages) in another direction, creating a bizarre \u2018kula ring\u2019 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. \u2026networks of organized crime (and so called \u2018body mafia\u2019) that are putting into circulation ambulatory organ buyers, itinerant kidney hunters, outlaw surgeons<\/em> (Source: Scheper-Hughes 2003 p. 19).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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