Iraqi Families Sell Organs to Overcome Poverty

April 20, 2016

(BBC) – Grinding poverty has made the trafficking of kidneys and other organs a phenomenon in Baghdad. About 22.5% of Iraq’s population of nearly 30 million people live in abject poverty, according to World Bank statistics from 2014. Gangs, offering up to $10,000 (£7,000) for a kidney, have increasingly targeted the country’s poor, making it a new hub for the organ trade across the Middle East. “The phenomenon is so widespread that authorities are not capable of fighting it,” said Firas al-Bayati, a human rights lawyer.