Iran horror: The sick black market where you can sell your kidney for £8,000
IRAN is currently embroiled in a fierce conflict with the USA over an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities - which Donald Trump has blamed on Tehran. But as political tensions rapidly escalate in a regime known for its brutal human rights abuses, a new dark practice has emerged on the streets of the capital.
Iran’s economy is falling apart; devastating economic sanctions have hit the country hard, with the economy expected to contrac by up to six percent this year. Several top Western agribusinesses have opted to stop selling food to the nation - which is dependent on such imports. But amidst the crisis, as many people struggle to afford food, a new lucrative business has emerged: the selling of bodily organs. Rising living costs and abject poverty is soaring in Iran so to make ends meet, many of the poorest members of society are turning to the black market - and the trade is booming.
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Kidneys are in most demand but the market, which began more than a decade ago, is no longer limited to just the one organ.
Now livers, lungs, bone marrow and corneas are up for grabs - with one man even willing to trade his heart.
Last year, the unnamed man - who used to be a street vendor in Tehran - had posted a flyer advertising the sale of his liver on a wall in the capital.
Hoping to raise the equivalent of £12,000 for the sale, the man revealed his child has a rare disease which specialist doctors have been unable to diagnose.
He told the local newspaper: “No one knows what my child’s main problem is. There was a gland next to his neck that became more swollen day by day until the gland became infected and since then my child’s weight has been lowering and he has fever two or three nights a week.
“We now live in a relative's house in Tehran around Shoosh (a poor neighbourhood in south Tehran).
“I couldn't come to Tehran every month with my three children and my wife and go back to Bandar Abbas (southern Iran).
“Last month I sold my kidney and the broker got half of the money and now I want to sell part of my liver directly to cover the cost of my child's treatment.
“So far I have spent 500 million rials but I have not succeeded. I am ready to sell my heart to keep my child healthy.”
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Iran economy in numbers
The average monthly salary of labourers who work for the government is 11,140,000 Rials - just £191
Many workers do not receive their salaries for at least three months.
While the average monthly salary of office worker varies based on experience and level of education but is about 20,000,000 Rials - just £344.
The heartbreaking admission is not a rarity. Thousands of people make similar desperate pleas, hoping to save themselves and their family from some of the direst situations. The organ market has become their last - and only - resort.
Organ prices are not fixed and constantly change - and the cost is dependent on a huge variety of factors, including:
- the sellers’ age
- the seriousness of the patient’s condition
- the severity of the patient’s health condition
- how urgently the organ is needed
- blood type
In 2018, the average cost of a kidney was up to £8,000, while a liver could go for anything from £12,000 to £40,000.
Bone marrow can cost £8,0000 while a cornea is worth an average of £16,000.
Blood type can play a huge role in the sale, with those with O- and B+ blood able to sell their organs for much higher prices.
How desperate the seller is can also play a pivotal role in the cost. Heartbreaking images featured in this article show the streets of Tehran, where sellers post flyers advertising their organs on the walls of buildings near the hospitals.
The harrowing sight shows hundreds of adverts, detailing a seller’s age, how healthy they are and the asking price for the organ they are hoping to sell.
Often, the signs also include comments begging pedestrians not to tear the adverts down - saying they are desperate and urgently need to make a sale.
But it’s not just adverts on the walls of buildings. Being a broker of bodily organs has become big business in Tehran, with traders acting as the middle man to identify a person in need of an organ and match them with someone willing to sell.
In September 2019, the following adverts appeared on the website for broke Koliyeh Centre - Koliyeah means kidney in Farsi):
Omid:
Hello I am Omid. Willing to sell part of my liver, my kidney and bone marrow on agreed price. It is urgent, urgent. If it is not done quickly, I will go to jail. The respected buyer or the broker, please send a sms first.
Seyed Morteza:
Hello. I am 27. I am an athlete. My kidney is completely healthy. Willing to take any test necessary. Blood type: B+. 400 million rials ($3600). It is below market price. I am not going to sell it for any lower price. Please do not bargain. Please. I need the money urgently.
No name
Hello. I am willing to sell my kidney for 250 million rials ($2,200). This is the price set by the kidney association. Since I need the money urgently, I am willing to come to anywhere in Iran.
Statistics indicate that nearly 3,800 kidney transplants are performed in Iran every year.
Of these, about 500 come from donors who are in a vegetative state while some are donated by relatives to loved ones who are in dire need of kidney transplant.
But about 3,000 kidneys a year are provided as a trade - often bought on the black market.
Shahin Gobadi, of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told Express.co.uk the trade of organs was a tragedy and “an untold catastrophe”
He claimed Iran had been “plundered by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his office and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”, leaving the public with little, or nothing - and forcing many into this harrowing trade in a desperate bid for survival.
Mr Gobadi added: “The regime has allotted several billion dollars to prop up the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad and roughly a billion dollars a year to the terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has also been extensively financing and helping the Houthis in Yemen and the terrorist Shia militias in Iraq.
“It is very telling that the painful trend of selling body parts continued and even intensified following the signing of the Iran Nuclear Deal, which released more than 100 billion dollars and enabled the regime to sell more than two million barrels of oil on a daily basis.
“As the Iranian Resistance said at the time, this windfall was not spent on improving the abysmal living conditions of the Iranian people.”
