I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6148 

To combat trafficking in human organs, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To combat trafficking in human organs, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Trafficking in Organs 

5 Victims Protection Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) World Health Organization (WHO) officials 

9 have estimated that approximately 10 percent of all 

10 transplanted kidneys worldwide are illegally ob11 tained, often bought from impoverished persons who 


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1 sell their organs out of desperation or harvested 

2 from prisoners. 

3 (2) The Council of Europe is investigating alle4 gations made by Ms. Carla del Ponte, a former chief 

5 prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal of 

6 the Former Yugoslavia, that approximately 300 eth7 nic Serbs in Kosovo were kidnapped in 1999 with 

8 their organs being forcibly removed for sale by their 

9 captors. 

10 (3) The Special Rapporteur for the Council of 

11 Europe’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Com12 mittee, Mrs. Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, inter13 viewed a number of coerced kidney donors during a 

14 May 2003 visit to Moldova, who were all young men 

15 driven by extreme poverty to sell their kidneys for a 

16 sum of $2,500 to $3,000, and reported that the 

17 medical follow-up of these illegal organ harvesting 

18 operations lasted no more than five days, after 

19 which the donors were sent back on a bus to their 

20 home country, frequently causing permanent disabil21 ities due to complications from the operations. 

22 (4) The Council of Europe’s Special 

23 Rapporteur, Vermot-Mangold, also reported that the 

24 recipients of these kidneys were estimated to have 


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1 paid between $100,000 and $250,000 for kidney 

2 transplants. 

3 (5) On June 3, 2003, the Council of Europe’s 

4 Special Rapporteur, Vermot-Mangold, testified that 

5 international criminal organizations had exploited 

6 those in extreme poverty in nations in Eastern Eu7 rope in order to harvest their organs for sale on the 

8 black market. 

9 (6) Between 2001 and 2003, a South African 

10 black market kidney transplant ring coerced over 

11 109 impoverished people, mostly from Brazil and 

12 Romania, to travel to Durban, South Africa to for13 feit a kidney for the promise of approximately 

14 $120,000, with that payment sometimes not being 

15 provided following the operation. 

16 (7) According to the January 2007 report by 

17 David Matas and David Kilgore entitled, ‘‘Bloody 

18 Harvest: Revised Report into Allegations of Organ 

19 Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China’’, 

20 the website of the Organ Transplant Center of the 

21 Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing, China 

22 stated in 2004 that, ‘‘Our Organ Transplant Center 

23 is our main department for making money. Its gross 

24 income in 2003 was 16,070,000 yuan. From Janu25 ary to June of 2004, income was 13,570,000 yuan. 


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1 This year (2004) there is a chance to break through 

2 30,000,000 yuan.’’. 

3 (8) In May 2004, the World Health Assembly 

4 passed a resolution urging its member-states to take 

5 measures to protect the poorest as well as vulnerable 

6 groups from exploitation by organ traffickers. 

7 (9) On May 3, 2004, Radio Free Europe-Radio 

8 Liberty reported that Afghanistan’s Interior Min9 ister Ali Ahmed Lakali announced that in 2003 the 

10 Interior department had made over 100 arrests on 

11 charges of child abduction, and stated that the prob12 lem was growing as children were being taken to be 

13 sold for ‘‘sex or labor, or to provide human organs’’. 

14 (10) On November 20, 2004, Xin Ren from 

15 California State University stated to the Inter16 national Bureau for Children’s Rights Conference in 

17 Montreal, that, ‘‘[In 2003] [c]hildren were often ei18 ther sold by their parents for little money or kid19 napped and abducted by the traffickers to have their 

20 organ(s) removed for transplant purpose. . . . 

21 [S]ome people were even murdered in the process of 

22 forcible removal of their organs.’’. 

23 (11) According to the January 2007 report by 

24 David Matas and David Kilgore, from 2000 through 

25 2005, the sources of the organs used were not idenVerDate Mar 15 2010 05:16 Sep 17, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6148.IH H6148

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1 tified in an estimated 41,500 organ transplants that 

2 were performed in China during that period. 

3 (12) On March 30, 2006, the Police Super4 intendent of Paranaque, Philippines announced the 

5 arrest of a suspect alleged to have been involved 

6 with a kidnapping syndicate in the region which had 

7 been abducting children to remove and sell their or8 gans on the global black market, as in the case of 

9 one child who was discovered dead in Cavite, Phil10 ippines with his internal organs missing. 

11 (13) In March 2006, a children’s rights expert 

12 at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commis13 sion, Hengameh Anwari, stated, ‘‘Other reports that 

14 cause concern indicate that a number of children are 

15 abducted because of their body organs; they become 

16 victims of trafficking to foreign countries especially 

17 for their kidneys.’’. 

18 (14) In mid-November 2006, China’s Deputy 

19 Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged that ex20 ecuted prisoners sentenced to death are sources for 

21 organ transplants, and Asia News reported that 

22 Deputy Health Minister Huang had said he was cog23 nizant of the fact that too often organs come from 

24 non-consenting parties and are sold for high fees to 

25 foreigners. 


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1 (15) Senator Patrik Vankrunkelsven of Belgium 

2 reported that in November 2006 he called two hos3 pitals in China and was offered a kidney by each fa4 cility for the price of 50,000 Euros. 

5 (16) According to the January 2007 report by 

6 David Matas and David Kilgore, the website for the 

7 China International Transplantation Network As8 sistance Centre in May 2006 posted the following 

9 statements in its frequently asked questions section: 

10 ‘‘The First Affiliated Hospital of China was estab11 lished in 2003 specifically for our foreign friends 

12 . . . Viscera providers can be found immediately! 

13 . . . The supreme demotic [‘‘people’s’’] court, su14 preme demotic law-officer, police, judiciary, depart15 ment of health and civil administration have enacted 

16 law together to make sure organ donations are sup17 ported by the government . . . Our organs do not 

18 come from brain death victims because the organ 

19 may not be good.’’. 

20 (17) On January 8, 2007, the Sun newspaper 

21 of London reported that a severe shortage of avail22 able organs for transplant in the United Kingdom 

23 had contributed to that country becoming one of the 

24 top recipients of illegally trafficked organs. 


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1 (18) In 2007, Pakistan was identified by the 

2 WHO as one of the top destinations for ‘‘transplant 

3 tourism’’. 

4 (19) Pakistani authorities in April 2007 raided 

5 a black market organ ring in Lahore that consisted 

6 of doctors, officials, and middlemen who had ab7 ducted potential donors, drugged them and removed 

8 their kidneys without consent to then sell for profit. 

9 (20) Dr. Zafar ul Ahsan, a top urologist at 

10 Fatima Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, stated 

11 in September 2007, ‘‘Nearly 2,000 kidneys are 

12 transplanted in Pakistan every year, and seventy 

13 percent are bought by foreigners from Saudi Arabia, 

14 the UAE, Britain and Canada . . . A mafia is run15 ning Pakistan’s kidney transplant business with 

16 agents paying $1,000 to poor donors and then sell17 ing their kidneys on the black market for thousands 

18 of dollars.’’. 

19 (21) According to organ trafficking specialists 

20 at the WHO, the country of Moldova ranks third as 

21 a source of organs for sale on the global black mar22 ket, with such human organs frequently smuggled 

23 into neighboring Romania for delivery to under24 ground clinics located in several European Union 

25 member-states. 


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1 (22) In 2007, five employees of the tissue bank 

2 at the Faculty Hospital in Brno-Bohunice, the Czech 

3 Republic, were arrested and charged with illegal 

4 organ trafficking for selling more than $340,000 

5 worth of illegally obtained skin grafts to a tissue 

6 bank in the Netherlands. 

7 (23) In January 2008, the Government of In8 dia’s Health Ministry released an estimate that more 

9 than 100,000 kidney transplants are needed in India 

10 each year, but only 5,000 are performed legally. 

11 (24) On February 13, 2008, the United Na12 tions Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking 

13 (UNGIFT) hosted the ‘‘Vienna Forum to Fight 

14 Human Trafficking’’, and cited in its subsequent re15 port that a lack of adequate laws against illicit 

16 organ trafficking has created the opportunity for 

17 such illegal trade to grow and that there were clear 

18 indications that organ trafficking was increasing and 

19 frequently involved members of international crimi20 nal organizations. 

21 (25) On April 12, 2008, police raided a black 

22 market organ transplant house near Manila, Phil23 ippines, arresting three traffickers and discovering 

24 nine donors in the house, one of whom stated to au25 thorities that he had been promised $2,800 for his 


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1 kidney, and he was doing it because, ‘‘I can barely 

2 provide for my wife and children.’’. 

3 (26) On April 30, 2008, the Government of the 

4 Philippines passed a ban on transplants to foreign 

5 citizens, except in cases of familial relations, in re6 sponse to data showing that kidney transplants from 

7 Filipinos to foreign recipients had increased over 60 

8 percent between 2002 and 2006, which confirmed 

9 earlier reports of a thriving illegal organ black mar10 ket in the Philippines. 

11 (27) On November 17, 2008, the Congress of 

12 the Philippines passed a resolution which directed a 

13 Senate committee to investigate the rising instances 

14 of child organ trafficking in the country, and stated 

15 that the National Bureau of Investigation’s Human 

16 Trafficking Division reported that, ‘‘the abducted 

17 children are housed somewhere in Mindanao where 

18 victims are supplied with vitamin supplements to 

19 keep their internal organs healthy, and are then 

20 transported outside the country to undergo surgery 

21 for organ transplants’’. 

22 (28) In November 2008, Kosovar police 

23 searched a private clinic and found drugs and blood 

24 in plastic bags, and charged two doctors for the 

25 crime of performing illegal organ transplants. 


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1 (29) A February 2008 police raid on an organ 

2 trafficking ring in Gurgaon, India found that men 

3 posing as doctors to remove kidneys from migrant 

4 laborers conducted approximately five hundred ille5 gal kidney transplants over nine years, and pos6 sessed a waiting list of potential recipients of those 

7 organs from Canada, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, 

8 the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and 

9 the United States. 

10 (30) On April 8, 2009, the Global Post in Cairo 

11 reported that the Egyptian Government was consid12 ering legal measures to increase the number of legal 

13 organ donations to meet demand, which included a 

14 proposal supported by some in the religious commu15 nity to harvest organs from executed criminals, with 

16 or without their consent, as Ministry of Health 

17 spokesman, Dr. Abdel Rahman Shahin stated, 

18 ‘‘They [some religious clerics in favor of the meas19 ure] are saying that when [convicts’] organs are 

20 taken, they’re compensating for the bad they did.’’. 

21 (31) According to a June 1989 report by 

22 Georgetown University’s Joseph and Rose Kennedy 

23 Institute of Ethics entitled, ‘‘Anencephalic Infants 

24 as Potential Organ Sources: Ethical and Legal 

25 Issues’’, some European physicians have addressed 


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1 the shortage of human organs available for trans2 plant by disregarding bioethical standards and re3 moving the vital organs from anencephalic infants, 

4 prior to the medical determination of whether total 

5 brain death or cardiac death had occurred, on the 

6 ground that these infants were ‘‘brain-absent’’ and 

7 could be treated as if they were brain dead or, alter8 natively, that they were sufficiently lacking in cog9 nitive capacity that the usual moral constraints on 

10 killing persons did not apply, which in effect author11 ized them to actively cause the death of these in12 fants. 

13 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

14 It is the sense of Congress that— 

15 (1) the kidnapping or coercion of individuals for 

16 the purpose of extracting their organs for profit is 

17 abhorrent and in contradiction of the ideals and 

18 standards for ethical behavior upon which the 

19 United States has based its laws; 

20 (2) the harvesting of organs from living chil21 dren, regardless of the level of brain activity, is a 

22 violation of the human rights of the child and is a 

23 breach of internationally-accepted medical ethical 

24 standards described in World Health Organization 

25 Assembly Resolution 57.18 (May 22, 2004); and 


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1 (3) the illegal harvesting and trafficking of 

2 human organs violates the Universal Declaration of 

3 Human Rights, in Articles 3 which states, ‘‘Every4 one has the right to life, liberty and security of per5 son.’’, and Article 4 which states, ‘‘No one shall be 

6 held in slavery or servitude.’’. 

7 SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

8 It shall be the policy of the United States to— 

9 (1) seek to end the offensive practice of exploit10 ing the poor and vulnerable for the purpose of har11 vesting and trafficking their organs; 

12 (2) combat criminal trade in human organs; 

13 and 

14 (3) promote the dignity and security of human 

15 life in accordance to the Universal Declaration of 

16 Human Rights. 

17 SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO THE FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ACT 

18 OF 1961. 

19 (a) ANNUAL COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS

20 PRACTICES.—Section 116(f)(1)(B)(v) of the Foreign As21 sistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n(f)(1)(B)(v)) is 

22 amended by inserting after ‘‘mental and physical health 

23 care’’ the following: ‘‘, post-operative and rehabilitation 

24 care for victims of trafficking in human organs (as defined 


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1 in section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 

2 of 2000),’’. 

3 (b) ASSISTANCE TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO MEET

4 MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR THE ELIMINATION OF TRAF5 FICKING.—Section 134(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act 

6 of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2152d(a)) is amended by inserting 

7 after ‘‘of 2000)’’ the following: ‘‘, including the elimination 

8 of trafficking in human organs (as defined in section 103 

9 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000)’’. 

10 SEC. 6. AMENDMENTS TO THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PRO11 TECTION ACT OF 2000. 

12 (a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 103 of the Trafficking 

13 Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102) is 

14 amended— 

15 (1) in paragraph (2)— 

16 (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘or’’ 

17 at the end; 

18 (B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the 

19 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 

20 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

21 ‘‘(D) exploitation of a person through the 

22 promise of granting of payments or benefits in 

23 order to compel or entice the person to consent 

24 to the removal of one or more of the person’s 

25 organs for a transplant operation, in a manner 


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1 contrary to the standards described in World 

2 Health Organization Assembly Resolution WHA 

3 57.18 (May 22, 2004).’’; 

4 (2) in paragraph (8)— 

5 (A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘or’’ 

6 at the end; 

7 (B) in subparagraph (B), by striking the 

8 period at the end and inserting: ‘‘; or’’; and 

9 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

10 ‘‘(C) trafficking in human organs (as de11 fined in paragraph (12)).’’; 

12 (3) by redesignating paragraphs (12) through 

13 (14) as paragraphs (13) through (15), respectively; 

14 and 

15 (4) by inserting after paragraph (11) the fol16 lowing: 

17 ‘‘(12) TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN ORGANS.— 

18 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘trafficking 

19 in human organs’ means the recruitment, trans20 portation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of a 

21 person, by means of coercion or abduction, for 

22 the purpose of removing one or more of the per23 son’s organs, and the illicit transportation and 

24 transplantation of those organs in one or more 

25 other persons for profit or any other purpose. 


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1 ‘‘(B) ORGAN DEFINED.—In subparagraph 

2 (A), the term ‘organ’ means the human (includ3 ing fetal) kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, 

4 bone marrow, cornea, eye, bone, and skin or 

5 any subpart thereof and any other human 

6 organ (or any subpart thereof, including that 

7 derived from a fetus) specified by the President 

8 by regulation for purposes of this division.’’. 

9 (b) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Section 110(b)(1) of 

10 the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 

11 7107(b)(1)) is amended— 

12 (1) in subparagraph (E), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 

13 the end; 

14 (2) in subparagraph (F), by striking the period 

15 at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

16 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

17 ‘‘(G) with respect to trafficking in human 

18 organs— 

19 ‘‘(i) a list of the 10 countries deter20 mined to be the largest source of illegally 

21 trafficked human organs during the period 

22 covered by the report and a list of the 10 

23 countries determined to be the largest re24 cipients of illegally trafficked human orVerDate Mar 15 2010 05:16 Sep 17, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6148.IH H6148

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1 gans during the period covered by the re2 port; 

3 ‘‘(ii) any actions taken by each coun4 try listed under clause (i) to address and 

5 prevent trafficking in human organs; 

6 ‘‘(iii) any cooperative efforts by the 

7 United States and each country listed 

8 under clause (i) to address and prevent 

9 trafficking in human organs through joint 

10 public awareness campaigns; and 

11 ‘‘(iv) information regarding practices 

12 of trafficking in human organs of each 

13 country listed under clause (i) in the De14 partment of State’s travel advisories.’’. 

15 SEC. 7. AMENDMENTS TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT BASIC 

16 AUTHORITIES ACT OF 1956. 

17 Section 42 of the State Department Basic Authorities 

18 Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2714) is amended— 

19 (1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘convicted of 

20 an offense described in subsection (b) of this section 

21 during the period described in subsection (c) of this 

22 section’’ and inserting ‘‘convicted of an offense de23 scribed in subsection (b) or (c) of this section during 

24 the period described in subsection (d) of this sec25 tion’’; 


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1 (2) by redesignating subsections (c), (d), and 

2 (e) as subsections (d), (e), and (f), respectively; and 

3 (3) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol4 lowing: 

5 ‘‘(c) HUMAN ORGAN TRAFFICKING OFFENSES.— 

6 Subsection (a) of this section applies with respect to any 

7 individual convicted of an offense under section 301 of the 

8 National Organ Transplant Act (42 U.S.C. 274e).’’. 

9 SEC. 8. ACTIONS UNDER THE INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY 

10 ECONOMIC POWERS ACT. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—The President may exercise the 

12 authorities set forth in section 203 of the International 

13 Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702) with14 out regard to section 202 of that Act (50 U.S.C. 1701) 

15 in the case of any of the following: 

16 (1) The export of anti-rejection human organ 

17 transplant drugs to countries identified by the Sec18 retary of State as the largest source of illegally traf19 ficked human organs or the largest recipients of ille20 gally trafficked human organs in the report required 

21 under section 110(b) of the Trafficking Victims Pro22 tection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7107(b)). 

23 (2) The travel abroad by United States citizens 

24 for the purpose of participation in any activity relat25 ing to human organ trafficking (as defined in section 


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1 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 

2 2000). 

3 (b) PENALTIES.—The penalties set forth in section 

4 206 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 

5 (50 U.S.C. 1705) apply to violations of any license, order, 

6 or regulation issued under this section. 

Æ 


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