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There’s an excellent book about organ harvesting called The Red Market by Scott Carney: he goes into detail about the global underground economy for human tissue, from the grave robbers in India responsible for most of the anatomical skeletons in medical schools to human blood farms with kidnapped persons confined and forced to give blood at dangerously brief intervals. Some more seemingly innocuous portions of the trade are even in the regular market: some religious temples make colossal profits by selling the hair of their devotees to American wig factories, and numerous Indians living in squalid poverty have taken to selling a kidney in exchange for cash (the price relative to the risk being exploitatively low, it should be noted). It’s a fascinating subject, and deserves a lot more public attention. It’s really interesting to see the numbers on this; clicking the picture leads to some other, more disturbing statistics.

There’s an excellent book about organ harvesting called The Red Market by Scott Carney: he goes into detail about the global underground economy for human tissue, from the grave robbers in India responsible for most of the anatomical skeletons in medical schools to human blood farms with kidnapped persons confined and forced to give blood at dangerously brief intervals. Some more seemingly innocuous portions of the trade are even in the regular market: some religious temples make colossal profits by selling the hair of their devotees to American wig factories, and numerous Indians living in squalid poverty have taken to selling a kidney in exchange for cash (the price relative to the risk being exploitatively low, it should be noted).

It’s a fascinating subject, and deserves a lot more public attention. It’s really interesting to see the numbers on this; clicking the picture leads to some other, more disturbing statistics.

(via inbonobo)