Minors in Quezon forced to sell organs, says group

MANILA, Philippines – Several minors in Quezon province were coerced into selling their internal organs, a group advocating against child trafficking claimed.

The group Asia Against Child Trafficking said after extracting organs from people in the impoverished Baseco compound in Tondo, Manila, organ syndicates moved to Rodriguez town in Rizal and are now in Quezon province.

In a health forum sponsored by the Philippine College of Physicians, the group’s regional director, Amihan Abueva, said that during a study they conducted from 2008 to 2010, more than 200 individuals admitted to having sold internal organs.

Abueva noted that they received reports of organ sale in eight towns in Quezon province but were able to study the prevalence of organ sale in only three towns. In the towns studied, organ sellers are paid an average of P112,000 each. Among the organ sellers were boys aged 16 and 17. One of the boys sold his kidney in 2002 to help his mother set up a small store.

Like in most cases of underage organ sellers, he had just finished high school and came from an impoverished family. Dr. Antonio Paraiso of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute said that under the law, willful organ sale by a person does not constitute trafficking.     

Paraiso is program director for implementation of the Department of Health’s Philippine Organ Donation Program.

Former Health secretary Esperanza Cabral noted, however, that Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2009 covers organ trafficking.

Dr. Lynn Almazan-Gomez of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital said if the government has a policy allowing organ donation from deceased donors, organs may be extracted from victims of road accidents.

Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros said the incidences of organ selling in Quezon should be brought to the attention of President Aquino and Health Secretary Enrique Ona.

“I think we should consider and act on the sale of human organs according to our faith conviction,” said Oliveros, chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Bioethics. “It is immoral, so we should not be carried by monetary gains... The President should lead on this matter,” he added.

Oliveros said he would be asking for the issuance of an order prohibiting foreigners from having a transplant using organs from a non-related donor in the country.

“Let us maintain it for our pride and for moral reasons. We would be in a pitiful state if our country would be a market for human organs,” he said. – With Evelyn Macairan