Exposing the international trade in human body parts and tissue. Many Australians say that in principle they think organ donation is a good thing to do - it means the death of one person can improve or even save the lives of several others. What most people don't know is that there is a growing and very lucrative trade in human tissue.
Bones, tendons, skin and other tissues can be taken and either implanted into someone else, or turned into medical products, which are then sold for profit. In Australia the body tissue industry is in its infancy and it's governed by a strict set of rules.
Things are very different overseas. In Europe and the United States the industry is growing rapidly and involves major medical companies. But the demand for body parts is so great that it's difficult to keep up the supply. Now there's evidence that unscrupulous individuals, including forensic pathologists and other public health officials, have set up a network in Eastern Europe to obtain bodies to provide body parts for the West - sometimes without proper consent.
Next on Four Corners, German documentary makers Martina Keller and Wolfgang Luck combine with journalists in the Ukraine and the United States to detail the trail of body, and body part, theft. They start in Eastern Europe, travelling to Germany and America, investigating the underbelly of a trade that may be at the cutting edge of science, but is also skirting the law.
For some in Australia, it's now time to have a public debate about what tissue donation really means and how this developing industry should be regulated both here and overseas. |
