I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3694 
To combat trafficking in human organs, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 6, 2015 
Mr. TROTT (for himself and Mr. DEUTCH) 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strategy To Oppose 
Predatory Organ Trafficking Act’’ or the ‘‘STOP Organ 
Trafficking Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The World Health Organization (WHO) es-
timates that approximately 10 percent of all trans-
planted kidneys worldwide are illegally obtained, 
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often bought from vulnerable impoverished persons 
or forcibly harvested from prisoners. 
(2) In 2004, the World Health Assembly passed 
a resolution urging its member-states to take meas-
ures to protect the poorest as well as vulnerable 
groups from exploitation by organ traffickers. 
(3) On February 13, 2008, the United Nations 
Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking 
(UNGIFT) hosted the ‘‘Vienna Forum to Fight 
Human Trafficking’’, and subsequently reported 
that a lack of adequate illicit organ trafficking laws 
has provided opportunity for the illegal trade to 
grow. 
(4) On March 21, 2011, the Council of the Eu-
ropean Union adopted rules supplementing the defi-
nition of criminal offenses and the level of sanctions 
in order to strengthen the prevention of organ traf-
ficking and the protection of those victims. 
(5) In November 2012, Erasmus University 
Hospital along with institutions in Romania, Swe-
den, Bulgaria, and Spain launched a 3-year study 
backed by Europol into illegal organ trafficking, and 
released a statement that, ‘‘there are more and more 
indicators of ‘organ tourism’, whereby a patient 
travels abroad with the aim of receiving a trans-
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planted organ which may have been bought . . . do-
nors are often victims of human trafficking.’’. 
(6) According to organ trafficking specialists at 
the WHO, Moldova ranks third as a source of or-
gans for sale on the global black market, with such 
human organs frequently smuggled to underground 
clinics located in several European Union member- 
states. 
(7) Between 2001 and 2003, a South African 
black market kidney transplant ring coerced over 
109 people, mostly from Brazil and Romania, to 
travel to Durban, South Africa, to forfeit a kidney 
for the promise of approximately $120,000, although 
payment was frequently withheld following the oper-
ation. 
(8) On May 3, 2004, Afghanistan’s Interior 
Minister Ali Ahmed Lakali stated that the problem 
of child abduction was growing and children were 
being taken to be sold for ‘‘sex or labor, or to pro-
vide human organs’’. 
(9) In March 2006, a children’s rights expert at 
the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, 
Hengameh Anwari, stated, ‘‘Other reports that 
cause concern indicate that a number of children are 
abducted because of their body organs; they become 
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victims of trafficking to foreign countries especially 
for their kidneys.’’. 
(10) In June 2001, Dr. Wang Guogi testified 
before the Subcommittee on International Organiza-
tions and Human Rights of the Committee on Inter-
national Relations of the House of Representatives 
that Chinese hospitals worked in collusion with state 
security agencies to extract organs from executed 
prisoners without written consent of the organ do-
nors, and that these transplants were a lucrative 
source of income. 
(11) Researcher and journalist Ethan Gutmann 
estimates that approximately 65,000 Falun Gong 
adherents may have been killed for their organs 
from 2000 to 2008, and that a number of other reli-
gious and ethnic minorities may also have been tar-
geted. 
(12) On November 20, 2004, Xin Ren from 
California State University stated to the Inter-
national Bureau for Children’s Rights Conference in 
Montreal, that, ‘‘[In India, Pakistan, and some other 
Asian countries in 2003] [c]hildren were often either 
sold by their parents for little money or kidnapped 
and abducted by the traffickers to have their 
organ(s) removed for transplant purpose . . . 
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[S]ome people were even murdered in the process of 
forcible removal of their organs.’’. 
(13) The website of the Organ Transplant Cen-
ter of the Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing, 
China touted that, ‘‘Our Organ Transplant Center is 
our main department for making money . . . This 
year (2004) there is a chance to break through 
30,000,000 yuan.’’. 
(14) Canadian researchers David Matas, human 
rights attorney, and David Kilgour, former Cana-
dian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, conducted 
an investigation into allegations of organ harvesting 
from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in 2006, 
and based on extensive circumstantial evidence, their 
report concluded that the allegations were true and 
that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners 
may have been killed for their organs. 
(15) In mid-November 2006, China’s Deputy 
Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged that 
condemned prisoners are sources for organ trans-
plants, and Asia News reported that Deputy Health 
Minister Huang had said he was cognizant of the 
fact that too often organs come from non-consenting 
parties and are sold for high fees to foreigners. 
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(16) In May 2006, the website for the China 
International Transplantation Network Assistance 
Centre posted the following statements in its fre-
quently asked questions section: ‘‘The First Affili-
ated Hospital of China was established in 2003 spe-
cifically for our foreign friends . . . Viscera pro-
viders can be found immediately! . . . Our organs 
do not come from brain death victims because the 
organ may not be good.’’. 
(17) In November 2008, the United Nations 
Committee on Torture reported concern over the al-
legations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong pris-
oners and called on the Government of the People’s 
Republic of China to increase accountability and 
transparency in the organ transplant system and 
punish those individuals responsible for abuses. 
(18) In 2005, the United States ratified the 
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Traf-
ficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, 
a supplement to the United Nations Convention 
against Transnational Organized Crime, which in-
cludes the removal of organs as a form of exploi-
tation under the definition of ‘‘trafficking in per-
sons’’. 
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(19) On March 30, 2006, the Police Super-
intendent of Paranaque, Philippines, arrested a sus-
pect alleged to have ties to a regional kidnapping 
syndicate involved with abducting children in order 
to remove their organs and sell them on the global 
black market, as in the case of a child discovered 
dead in Cavite, Philippines, with his internal organs 
missing. 
(20) On April 12, 2008, police raided a black 
market organ transplant house near Manila, Phil-
ippines, arresting three traffickers and discovering 
nine donors in the house, one of whom stated to au-
thorities that he had been promised $2,800 for his 
kidney, and he was doing it because, ‘‘I can barely 
provide for my wife and children.’’. 
(21) In November 2008, the National Bureau 
of Investigation’s Human Trafficking Division in the 
Philippines reported, ‘‘the abducted children are 
housed somewhere in Mindanao where victims are 
supplied with vitamin supplements to keep their in-
ternal organs healthy, and are then transported out-
side the country to undergo surgery for organ trans-
plants’’. 
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(22) In 2007, Pakistan was identified by the 
WHO as one of the top destinations for ‘‘transplant 
tourism’’. 
(23) Pakistani authorities in April 2007 raided 
a black market organ ring in Lahore that consisted 
of doctors, officials, and middlemen who had ab-
ducted potential donors, drugged them and removed 
their kidneys without consent to then sell for profit. 
(24) Dr. Zafar ul Ahsan, a top urologist at 
Fatima Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, stated 
in September 2007, ‘‘A mafia is running Pakistan’s 
kidney transplant business with agents paying 
$1,000 to poor donors and then selling their kidneys 
on the black market for thousands of dollars.’’. 
(25) In 2007, five employees of the tissue bank 
at the Faculty Hospital in Brno-Bohunice, the Czech 
Republic, were arrested and charged with illegal 
organ trafficking for selling more than $340,000 
worth of illegally obtained skin grafts to a tissue 
bank in the Netherlands. 
(26) In January 2008, the Government of In-
dia’s Health Ministry released an estimate that more 
than 100,000 kidney transplants are needed in India 
each year, but only 5,000 are performed legally. 
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(27) A February 2008 police raid on an organ 
trafficking ring in Gurgaon, India, found that men 
posed as doctors to remove kidneys from migrant la-
borers, and conducted approximately 500 illegal kid-
ney transplants over nine years. 
(28) On April 8, 2009, the Global Post in Cairo 
reported that the Egyptian Government was consid-
ering measures to increase the number of legal 
organ donations to meet demand, which included a 
proposal to harvest organs from executed criminals, 
with or without their consent, as then Ministry of 
Health spokesman, Dr. Abdel Rahman Shahin stat-
ed, ‘‘They are saying that when [convicts’] organs 
are taken, they’re compensating for the bad they 
did.’’. 
(29) In November 2010, Netcare KwaZulu, a 
hospital in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal 
province, pleaded guilty to illegally removing kidneys 
from five minors between 2001 and 2003. 
(30) On January 12, 2011, Doctor Yusuf 
Sonmez, who has been dubbed the ‘‘Turkish Frank-
enstein’’, was arrested in Pristina for his alleged 
participation in illegal organ trafficking in Kosovo 
and Azerbaijan. 
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(31) In April 2013, a Kosovo court convicted 
five defendants for conducting over 30 illegal harvest 
operations in an organ trafficking ring at the 
Medicus clinic, where impoverished people from Tur-
key, Russia, Moldova, and Kazakhstan were coerced 
into selling their kidneys. 
(32) In 2011, Egypt passed a law prohibiting 
the exchange of money for human organs and re-
stricting human organ donations to relatives up to 
four degrees removed. 
(33) In February 2015, the Iraqi Ambassador 
to the United Nations alleged that the Islamic State 
was illegally harvesting organs from murdered civil-
ians to finance their operations. 
(34) According to a 2013 United Nations re-
port from the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in 
persons, especially women and children, the eco-
nomic and social divisions within and among coun-
tries is notably reflected in the illicit organ traf-
ficking market, in which the victims are commonly 
poor, unemployed, and more susceptible to deceit 
and extortion. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
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(1) the kidnapping or coercion of individuals for 
the purpose of extracting their organs for profit is 
in contradiction of the ideals and standards for eth-
ical behavior upon which the United States has 
based its laws; 
(2) the harvesting of organs from living chil-
dren, regardless of the level of brain activity, is a 
violation of the human rights of the child and is a 
breach of internationally accepted medical ethical 
standards described in WHO Assembly Resolution 
57.18 (May 22, 2004); 
(3) the illegal harvesting and trafficking of 
human organs violates the Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights, in Article 3 which states that ‘‘Ev-
eryone has the right to life, liberty and security of 
person.’’, and in Article 4 which states that ‘‘No one 
shall be held in slavery or servitude.’’; and 
(4) efficient national organ donation systems 
with effective enforcement mechanisms that ensure 
voluntary organ donations are the most effective way 
to combat trafficking in human organs. 
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It shall be the policy of the United States to— 
(1) combat the international trafficking in 
human organs; 
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(2) promote the adoption of national transplan-
tation systems that ensure voluntary organ donation 
processes in bilateral diplomatic meetings, as well as 
in international health forums; and 
(3) promote the dignity and security of human 
life in accordance to the Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights. 
SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT BASIC 
AUTHORITIES ACT OF 1956. 
Section 42 of the State Department Basic Authorities 
Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2714) is amended— 
(1) in the section heading, by adding at the end 
the following: ‘‘AND ORGAN TRAFFICKERS’’; 
(2) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘convicted 
of an offense described in subsection (b) of this sec-
tion during the period described in subsection (c) of 
this section’’ and inserting ‘‘convicted of an offense 
described in subsection (b) or (c) of this section dur-
ing the period described in subsection (d) of this sec-
tion’’; 
(3) by redesignating subsections (c), (d), and 
(e) as subsections (d), (e), and (f), respectively; and 
(4) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-
lowing new subsection: 
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‘‘(c) HUMAN ORGAN TRAFFICKING OFFENSES.— 
Subsection (a) of this section applies with respect to any 
individual convicted of an offense under section 301 of the 
National Organ Transplant Act (42 U.S.C. 274e) if such 
individual used a passport or otherwise crossed an inter-
national border in the commission of such an offense.’’. 
SEC. 6. ACTIONS UNDER THE INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY 
ECONOMIC POWERS ACT AND AMENDMENTS 
TO THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION 
ACT OF 2000. 
(a) INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY ECONOMIC POW-
ERS ACT.—The President may exercise the authorities 
specified in section 203 of the International Emergency 
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702) without regard 
to section 202 of such Act (50 U.S.C. 1701) in the case 
of travel abroad by United States citizens for the purpose 
of participation in any activity relating to trafficking in 
human organs. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 103 of the Trafficking 
Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102) is 
amended— 
(1) in paragraph (3)— 
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘or’’ 
at the end; 
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(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the 
period at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph: 
‘‘(D) exploitation of a person through the 
promise of the granting of payments or benefits 
in order to compel or entice the person to con-
sent to the removal of one or more of the per-
son’s organs for a transplant operation, in a 
manner contrary to the standards described in 
WHO Assembly Resolution WHA 57.18 (May 
22, 2004).’’; 
(2) in paragraph (9)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘or’’ 
at the end; 
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking the 
period at the end and inserting: ‘‘; or’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph: 
‘‘(C) trafficking in human organs (as de-
fined in paragraph (13)).’’; 
(3) by redesignating paragraphs (13) through 
(15) as paragraphs (14) through (16), respectively; 
(4) by inserting after paragraph (12) the fol-
lowing new paragraph: 
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‘‘(13) TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN ORGANS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘trafficking 
in human organs’ means— 
‘‘(i) the recruitment, transportation, 
transfer, harboring, or receipt of a person, 
either living or deceased, for the purpose of 
removing one or more of the person’s or-
gans, by means of— 
‘‘(I) coercion; 
‘‘(II) abduction; 
‘‘(III) deception; 
‘‘(IV) abuse of power or a posi-
tion of vulnerability; or 
‘‘(V) transfer of payments or 
benefits to achieve the consent of a 
person having control over a person 
described in the matter preceding sub-
clause (I); or 
‘‘(ii) the illicit transportation and 
transplantation of organs in one or more 
other persons for profit or any other pur-
pose. 
‘‘(B) ORGAN DEFINED.—In subparagraph 
(A), the term ‘organ’ means the human (includ-
ing fetal) kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, 
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bone marrow, cornea, eye, bone, and skin or 
any subpart thereof and any other human 
organ (or any subpart thereof, including that 
derived from a fetus) specified by the President 
by regulation for purposes of this division.’’; 
and 
(5) in paragraph (15), as so redesignated, by 
inserting before the period at the end the following: 
‘‘or (13)’’. 
(c) INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE TO MONITOR AND 
COMBAT TRAFFICKING.—Section 105(d)(3) of the Traf-
ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 
7103(d)(3)) is amended by inserting after the first sen-
tence the following new sentence: ‘‘Such procedures shall 
include collection and organization of data from human 
rights officers at United States embassies on host coun-
try’s laws against trafficking in human organs and any 
instances of violations of such laws.’’. 
SEC. 7. REPORTING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than six months after 
the date of the enactment of this Act and annually there-
after, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appro-
priate congressional committees a report that includes the 
following information: 
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(1) A list of the ten countries determined to be 
the greatest sources, facilitators, or recipients of 
trafficking in human organs during the period cov-
ered by each such report. 
(2) Any actions taken by each country included 
on a list under paragraph (1) to address and prevent 
trafficking in human organs. 
(3) Any cooperative efforts by the United 
States and each country included on a list under 
paragraph (1) to address and prevent trafficking in 
human organs through joint public awareness cam-
paigns. 
(4) Information regarding practices of traf-
ficking in human organs of each country included on 
a list under paragraph (1) in the Department of 
State’s travel advisories. 
(b) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—The reports re-
quired under subsection (a) shall include the collection and 
organization of data from human rights officers at United 
States diplomatic and consular posts on host countries’ 
laws against trafficking in human organs and any in-
stances of violations of such laws. 
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
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(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 
the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate. 
(2) COERCION.—The term ‘‘coercion’’ means 
the exploitation of a person through the promise or 
granting of payments or benefits in order to compel 
or entice such person to consent to the removal of 
one or more of such person’s organs for a transplant 
operation, in a manner contrary to the standards de-
scribed in WHO Assembly Resolution WHA 57.18 
(May 22, 2004). 
(3) HUMAN ORGAN.—The term ‘‘human organ’’ 
means the human (including fetal) kidney, liver, 
heart, lung, pancreas, bone marrow, cornea, eye, 
bone, and skin or any subpart thereof and any other 
human organ (or any subpart thereof, including that 
derived from a fetus). 
(4) TRAFFICKING
IN
HUMAN
ORGANS.—The 
term ‘‘trafficking in human organs’’ means— 
(A) the recruitment, transportation, trans-
fer, harboring, or receipt of a person, either liv-
ing or deceased, for the purpose of removing 
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one or more of such person’s human organs, by 
means of— 
(i) coercion; 
(ii) abduction; 
(iii) deception; 
(iv) abuse of power or a position of 
vulnerability; or 
(v) transfer of payments or benefits to 
achieve the consent of a person having con-
trol over a person described in the matter 
preceding subparagraph (A); and 
(B) the illicit transportation and trans-
plantation of such human organs in one or 
more other persons for profit or any other pur-
pose. 
SEC. 9. LIMITATION ON FUNDS. 
No additional funds are authorized to be appro-
priated to carry out this Act or any amendment made by 
this Act. 
Æ 
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