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The Global Traffic in Human Organs1.

Scheper-Hughes

    Current Anthropology
    |March 4, 2000
    PubMed
    Summary

    This study examines the global trade in human organs, highlighting how transplant technologies create artificial scarcities and reshape perceptions of the body and personhood in a neoliberal world.

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    Area of Science:

    • Medical Anthropology
    • Global Health
    • Sociology of Medicine

    Background:

    • The global organ transplant trade operates transnationally, involving diverse actors and new capital/technology flows.
    • Inspired by historical analyses of colonial trade and manufactured desires, this paper explores contemporary organ trafficking.
    • Organ transplantation significantly impacts the conceptualization of the human body, its parts, and interpersonal relationships.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To map the late-20th-century global trade in human bodies, body parts, and related desires.
    • To analyze how organ transplant technologies create artificial scarcities and new commodities.
    • To explore the anthropological implications of these developments within neoliberal contexts.

    Main Methods:

    • Qualitative analysis of transnational organ transplant networks.
    • Examination of the intersection of global capital, technology, and the human body.
    • Anthropological inquiry into issues of global domination and local resistance.

    Main Results:

    • Organ transplantation has become a transnational enterprise, facilitated by global economic and technological advancements.
    • Transplant technologies foster the creation of artificial scarcities and commodification of human organs.
    • The practice reconfigures relationships between individuals, the state, and the concept of the body.

    Conclusions:

    • The global organ trade raises critical anthropological questions about power, resistance, and the redefinition of human value.
    • Neoliberalism exacerbates the commodification of the body and the creation of artificial needs in medicine.
    • The spread of transplant technologies challenges traditional notions of gift, commodity, medicine, and magic.

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