Tales from the Organ Trade (2013) - full transcript

(contemplative strings music)

(dramatic piano music)

(machinery beeping)

(ventilator hissing)

- [Narrator] It is one

of the great miracles

of modern medicine, the

saving of a dying patient

with a transplanted body part.

But there is a worldwide

shortage of organs

and a surplus of poor

people who believe

that the solution

to their suffering

is not to receive an

organ, but to sell one.

* Take it

* Take another little

piece of my heart now, baby

* Oh, oh, break it

* Break another little bit

of my heart, now darling

* Yeah, c'mon now

* Oh, have a

* Have another little

piece of my heart now, baby

* You know you got it, wow

* Take it

* Take another little

piece of my heart now, baby

* Oh, oh, break it

* Break another

little bit of my heart

(ominous strings music)

(gulls squawking)

(traffic rumbling)

(cars honking)

(train rattling)

- [Narrator] Joboy, a

44-year-old husband and father

yearns to lift his family

from abject poverty.

He's decided to sell

one of his kidneys.

His home is a crawl space

under someone else's shack.

It's too small to stand up in,

and there's no electricity.

(dramatic strings music)

- [Narrator] In the Philippines,

like almost everywhere

else on earth,

selling a part of

your body is illegal.

The result is a

flourishing black market,

run by backstreet

brokers like Diane.

Like most brokers, Diane

sold one of her own kidneys

and served as the agent

for a dozen members

of her extended family

when they sold theirs.

- [Narrator] Diane has

offered Joboy $2,500,

double what he'd earn from

unskilled labor in a year.

- [Narrator] All they need now

is someone who is

desperately ill.

Every year, all over the world,

thousands of people like

Joboy make the same decision.

50 years ago, it wasn't possible

to take one kidney from

another to save a life.

Now, it's almost routine.

We are born with two.

With proper care, we can

live and thrive with one.

But the demand for this

organ far exceeds the supply,

so many desperate patients

turn to the black market where,

in some countries,

you can pick up

a kidney for the

price of a laptop.

(machinery beeping)

(ventilator hissing)

(dramatic piano music)

- I was diagnosed at 21

that I had kidney failure.

Generally when this happens,

it happens when you're older.

Of course you go into

denial and you think,

"No way, this can't

be happening to me."

(silverware clatters)

I'm just trying to

live the life I think

I would have lived if

this didn't happen.

(water hissing)

- [Narrator] Mary

Jo has been waiting

for a kidney transplant

for six years.

She's kept alive on dialysis.

- Dialysis, what

it does is, I mean,

it cleans your blood

but it's not just

taking out the toxins,

it's taking out everything.

So, anything good

that's in your body

as well comes out

at the same time.

So, you know, you're wiped out.

When you get off you're

completely wiped out,

so it, I mean, it

takes its toll.

(dog barks)

Sorry Hun, I locked it.

- Oh that's okay.

- I've got stuff

happening all the time.

I've got a three-year-old

kid who's got special needs.

I've got a husband, I've got

a house, I've got a career.

If I want to do the things

I've always wanted to do.

I still want to travel, I want

to, I want to live my life.

So this is my dialysis machine.

(dramatic piano music)

Doing dialysis is

a very traumatizing

experience for anybody.

It took me, I'd say

at least a good year

to really get used to sticking

sharp needles in my arm.

(machine beeping)

You have to do dialysis

every other day.

It just changes you.

It changes the way

you look at things.

It changes your way of life,

your perspective on things

and how you would

do things normally.

This one hurts.

You can't stay on

this machine forever.

It doesn't do what

a kidney does.

Some days I think,

"God, how much longer

"am I going to have to do this?"

I would love to have a living

donor if that was possible.

This is it, unless

somebody offers me a kidney

or unless a cadaver

becomes available.

This is what keeps me alive.

(dramatic strings

and piano music)

- There's no point in

having a bad attitude.

You put up with what

you have to put up with

and there's no point in

complaining about it.

It's a matter of just what

you have to deal with.

I'm effectively between

a rock and a hard place.

If I can get a transplant

in the next year or two,

I will probably live

another 20, 25 years.

If I, you know, don't

manage to maintain

my health long enough

to get a transplant

and they take me off

the transplant list,

I'll be dead in eight

years, probably.

It's not living, it's existing.

- So Walter, how

long have you been

on the transplant list already?

- Almost two years.

- Wow.

- What do I have, probably

two or three years

before I probably have problems?

- Currently, people

that have, were put

on the transplant list

at the time you were,

they're waiting anywhere

from four to five years

for a kidney to become available

unless they have a living donor.

- Right.

(dramatic piano music)

- Patients who are on dialysis

have an increased mortality.

And that mortality

hasn't changed in the

last 15, 20 years.

As a doctor, if

you're in a clinic

of a hundred people

that you're treating,

20 of those people are

going to die each year.

- I effectively have to

decide at this point whether,

you know, if I

can't find a donor

in this country fairly

soon, I have to decide

whether I'm willing

to take on my soul,

the ethical burden of purchasing

a kidney from somebody

or choose to die, and that is

really the choice I'm facing.

(pot clangs)

(water hissing)

- Waiting for him to get

to the top of the list--

- Which I ain't gonna make.

- Of transplant,

cadaver transplants,

just doesn't seem like

it's gonna happen.

And you know, it's, yeah, I mean

a foreign situation obviously

would not be our first choice

but at this point it looks

like it may be our only choice.

(dramatic piano music)

- [Narrator] In Toronto,

Raul Fain already made

the choice that

Walter is considering.

He mortgaged his

house, went overseas,

and paid $100,000 for a kidney.

- Where was this

minaret, downtown?

- Across from the hotel.

- [Raul] Oh, here is how I look

after the second day of surgery,

and my muscles have

disappeared and I've lost--

- Oh, the muscle disappeared

before the surgery.

That's what renal failure does.

Let me see this one.

- Approximately 10

years ago, I was

diagnosed with a kidney disease.

After about nine years,

my specialist suggested

that he's really not able

to help me much more.

(keyboard clacking)

So I started to inquire about

doing a transplant overseas.

I had one ray of sunshine that

through some family members,

it was transmitted to me

that there was a gentleman

that had this

operation in Israel.

- When he got the news that

there may be a possibility

to go out of the

country, we just jumped.

- [Raul] And when I

contacted this person,

he explained to me

that the surgery

does not take place in Israel.

- Then it was Turkey,

which I said okay.

Turkey is already,

it's not a backward country.

It's modern and so on.

- He also informed

me that there were

some problems in Turkey,

and the whole operation

has had to move to Kosovo.

- The Turkey clinic

has been closed.

We have to go to Kosovo, so

whatever we were prepared for,

we were not prepared for Kosovo.

(dramatic strings music)

- [Narrator] Kosovo is

Europe's newest country,

an orphaned slice of

the former Yugoslavia

corroded by corruption and

strangled by organized crime.

(siren wails)

When Raul traveled to

Kosovo for his black market

kidney transplant, he had no

idea he was about to become

embroiled in one of the

world's most infamous

organ trafficking

rings, an organization

now being investigated

by the European Union.

(treadmill whirring)

Jonathan Ratel is a prosecutor

and a veteran of trouble spots

like Iraq and Afghanistan.

He has now been sent to Kosovo

to crack down on organized

crime and corruption.

The first case to land on

his desk is the Medicus case.

The charges, trafficking in

body parts, organized crime,

trafficking in persons, and

unlawful medical practice.

- [Linda] Okay, what are

the precise allegations

that ground the indictment here?

- There is a growing

network of organ trade

throughout the world, and

unfortunately the source

for these organs are

the indigent, the

poor, the vulnerable,

and the persons who

want this are rich,

wealthy, western

nations, who can pay

a hundred thousand US

dollars for a kidney.

And they are harvesting

these organs.

That's the top-level

allegation of this.

- To sell an organ,

it's a terrible thing.

But on the other

hand, maybe it's saves

your life equally

how it saved my life.

We don't know, and I cannot

profess to know what,

for what purpose did

these people did it.

You know, so that's why

it can never be, you know,

100% one way and say

it's bad and that's it.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- [Narrator] In this

clinic called Medicus,

on the outskirts of

Kosovo's capital, Prishtina,

Raul Fain's life was saved by

one of Europe's most wanted men.

- One of the significant figures

in this case is Dr. Yusuf

Sonmez, without a doubt.

This individual is a

notorious organ trafficker

and has engaged in this

activity in his own home country

in Turkey for a

long period of time.

(camera shutters clicking)

He is the surgical

expertise in this case.

- [Narrator] Dr. Yusuf

Sonmez is one of Turkey's

most accomplished

transplant surgeons

and a fugitive from the

international police.

He performed more than

2,000 operations in Turkey

and in dark corners of

the former Soviet empire.

He first made headlines when

he was caught on hidden camera

allegedly offering a man

$8,000 for his kidney.

- [Narrator] His

alleged practice

of dealing in body parts

earned him the nicknames

Doctor Vulture and the

Turkish Frankenstein.

Arrested six times

in his own country,

Sonmez escaped

conviction by producing

consent forms from his donors,

attesting that ultimately

no cash ever changed hands.

- [Narrator] But now, the

transplants he performed

at the Medicus clinic in Kosovo,

have him in the legal

crosshairs once again.

- He had a presence.

He could have commanded

anybody in the room,

and the way he imposed

himself, just by his,

just by his movements,

just by his demeanor.

- He didn't have

time for small talk,

although I tried

to entertain a few,

a few words with him, I

said I read a lot about you.

To what he said, "Yeah,

all the beautiful things

"about me on the Internet,

and you still came?"

And I said, "Yes,"

(laughs) "and we still came

"because you are the only one."

- [Jonathan] What really grounds

this case is man's

inhumanity to man.

Anywhere from 10 to 15% of all

organ transplants are illegal.

This is an exploitation of the

human condition

that has to stop.

- Obviously, I'm

biased and, obviously,

this particular situation

helped me and saved my life.

So obviously there is,

you know, I'm selfish.

But I don't see it like

such a terrible thing,

provided that it's done

in kind of an honest way.

- [Narrator] The

Medicus case involves

dozens of people across

three continents.

Raul was one of 20

patients who traveled

to Kosovo to buy

a kidney in 2008.

20 people from Eastern

Europe, Turkey,

and Russia sold their kidneys.

The prosecution claims

that Raul's transplant

was performed by the

surgeon Yusuf Sonmez

and aided by an international

cast of characters

that includes another

doctor, a fixer,

and an exploited victim

who gave up an organ.

To track the sale of

a black market kidney,

the production team

sets out to reassemble

all the player's from

Raul's operation,

starting with the man at the

center of the Medicus case.

Amazingly, Dr. Sonmez,

a fugitive from justice,

wanted by Interpol,

has his own website.

(keyboard clacking)

But does Dr. Frankenstein

answer his emails?

(gloomy mandolin music)

(razor humming)

The Philippines was

once a prime destination

for foreign patients

desperate to buy a kidney,

but with the global crackdown

on organ trafficking,

it's now affluent Philippinos

who drive the trade.

- [Narrator] Diane gets word

that a transplant is imminent.

She keeps a roster of

potential organ sellers

so that surgeons have a choice.

Joboy has competition.

(dramatic piano music)

Eddieboy is a 22-year-old with

the same blood type as Joboy

and an equal ration of

poverty and hopelessness.

(baby cooing)

- [Narrator] In the Philippines,

like everywhere else,

each donor must testify

before a hospital official

that they are not being coerced

and that they are motivated

strictly by altruism,

not financial gain.

- [Narrator] To prevent

abuse, Philippine law requires

that a donor have a

relationship with the recipient.

This is the loophole

that will get

Diane's candidates

through their interview.

- [Narrator] It takes

Eddieboy a while to catch on.

But Diane has too much

at stake to let him fail.

- [Narrator] Joboy

is a quicker study.

(suspenseful strings

and piano music)

- [Narrator] Now, for Eddieboy

and Joboy, it's

just a waiting game.

(thunder rumbles)

A few days later, there's

a call from the hospital.

- [Narrator] Diane

tells Joboy the news.

(dramatic mandolin music)

(dramatic strings

and piano music)

- I really think we should

look at other alternatives.

- Yeah, well...

- [Nancy] So Laura, I

appreciate that, you know,

in your situation, you

don't really feel that you--

- Sure.

- Could be a donor, but I

obviously have mixed feelings.

If she were to suddenly have a

change of heart

and say, "Yes," a--

- [Laura] What an enormous

relief it would be for everyone.

- Yeah, I mean, I think

it'd be marvelous.

On the other hand, I don't

blame her at all for, you know,

making the decision

that she's made.

- It's not even a

rational decision,

really, this is a piece

of my body and I'm not

gonna give it away.

- [Walter] Well I

understand that, well...

- And surgery is scary,

and things are scary,

and I've got lots

of rational reasons,

but the actual reason is just

that it bothers me, the idea.

- [Walter] I know, I know.

It would bother me too.

- [Laura] Yeah.

- And you damn well know that,

you know, we would have done

anything for you when

you were growing up,

and you'll do the

same for your kids.

- No, I could have told you

already that that would be,

of course that

would be different.

(Laura and Nancy laugh)

- [Walter] Right, well.

- I'm not an idiot, of course

that would be different.

You know, I mean,

it's my parents.

They've done lots

of things for me.

It seems like I ought to be

able to do something for them,

and I do things for

them, but you know,

this is something that

my father actually needs,

and to feel like it's

not something that

I'm willing to do.

If it were something

I couldn't do,

I would feel less

guilty, but it being

something that I'm

not willing to do,

I've made a decision

not to help.

(dramatic piano

and guitar music)

- I mean, I really

only have three

choices at this point, okay?

I either get a

transplant overseas,

I get a transplant in

this country, or I die.

- It feels to me as

though going overseas

and taking an organ

from somebody for money,

again, especially

because that's something

that I wouldn't be

comfortable doing.

- Yeah, it's using them.

- And taking advantage of

their poverty, which is

something that is,

I mean, it's wrong.

- Right, I agree.

There's no argument, and

the fact that other people

in this country can't afford to

do this kind of thing is unfair.

- Sure.

- [Nancy] But life is unfair.

- [Laura] I know, and I know

life is unfair, and I know--

- You know, rich people get

things that poor people don't.

That's the way the world works.

- That's true.

I wish we were rich. (chuckles)

- Well, whatever, but

you know what I mean.

- It's the choosing to

take advantage of it

that's so

uncomfortable, you know?

- I just don't see that

there's a lot of choice.

(bus honks and clangs)

- My family's riddled

with kidney disease.

My mom's been on the

machine for 18 years.

There she is.

She doesn't look

like the same person.

I mean, if you ask anybody

who knew her 10 years ago,

and they saw her now, they

wouldn't recognize her.

The change has

been that dramatic.

Hi.

- How's Alexander?

- He's good.

She's tired and her body is

broken down in many ways.

And dialysis has

just crippled her.

She's only 53.

Mom, I didn't park very close.

Do you want me to park closer?

(machine beeping)

My brother started dialysis

three years ago as well.

My mom developed bone disease.

Her hair started falling out.

It's just been one thing after

another for the past 18 years.

I just don't want to

see myself go down

the same path my mom has, where,

you know, you just degenerate.

Your body just starts to

fall apart after a while.

- If my kids could

have a transplant,

it would be a new beginning.

My daughter's been on

dialysis about six years

and my son, three, so if

there's a kidney out there,

give it to my kids before me

because I really want them to.

I really want them that gift.

- I've got this cool technology.

It's the latest, you know?

You see, what I do is,

I, in, out. (chuckles)

So, you know, it's

like a faucet.

There's two lines basically.

- It's in his

jugular, and that's

what he lives with everyday.

Like, he can't have a shower.

The benefits of having

that, like he said,

like you don't have to put

needles in your arms everyday.

You just hook up

and you're good.

- [Nick] You show them your

arm and then we'll compare.

Okay, this is what terrifies me.

- You wanna see an

old pro? (laughs)

- [Mary Jo] This is 20 years.

- [Nick] Look at this.

This is the choice

I had, you know?

They told me I had

a week to live,

and this is what I

knew would happen

to me if they

started sticking me.

- I used this too

many times that

every once in a

while it just bursts.

- [Mary Jo] That's

when it exploded.

- Yeah.

- Before Halloween.

- [Nick] At the dinner

table. (chuckles)

(dramatic guitar music)

- I've heard of the black

market where, you know,

people are going to try

and source out kidneys

from, you know,

underdeveloped countries.

"Hello, everyone, all

of you need kidneys

"but don't have

potential donors.

"If I am right, then I have

the exact solution for you."

Yeah, I don't know what to

make of stuff like this.

The black market idea

scares me a little bit.

There's people who have come

back riddled with infections.

So, you hear stuff like

that and you just think,

"Wow, that's not the

route I want to take."

- I could definitely

see more people saying,

"I will donate a kidney, and

I'm really hard up for cash."

They're helping someone,

and it might even

help them in a way, so they're,

the person who is

sick is benefiting,

and this person is

getting the compensation

that might actually turn

their life around as well.

- The one guy who wants to

donate his kidney is not

donating it because it's coming

from somewhere deep inside.

He's donating it because he's

desperate for money, so...

- I disagree.

I think he's doing it knowing

that he's helping this guy.

Even though it's petty,

it may seem materialistic,

he still doesn't have to do

that, you know what I mean?

- But if he didn't

need the money,

do you think he

would still do it?

- Maybe not, it sounds

like he wouldn't,

but the guy's getting 20 grand,

but the guys getting a

kidney, you know what I mean?

And he knows the circumstance.

- Yeah, and that's

fine and they're all,

you know, everybody's

happy, but what happens

when that 20 grand

doesn't work out?

What's he gonna do, try and

sell another part of his body?

- Well, hopefully not.

- If our system is failing us,

this is the outcome, right?

This is the by-product.

- Well, when

something isn't freely

available, a black

market exists.

(dramatic strings music)

(car honks)

- [Narrator] In Kosovo,

the infamous Medicus clinic

is deserted now, its

doctors, donors, patients,

and brokers scattered

around the world.

Getting witnesses back

to Kosovo to testify

is proving a challenge

for Jonathan Ratel.

- There's a lot of

moving parts right now.

There's a lot of different

agencies and people involved.

It's my opinion that the

organized criminal group

chose Kosovo for a

particular reason.

Its claim of sovereignty

is recognized

by some states and not others.

We can be seeking evidence in

a foreign country that will

not respond to us because

they do not recognize Kosovo.

That is a massive difficulty.

- [Narrator] So far, Ratel

has seven local doctors

and clinicians

secured for the trial,

but Turkey refuses to

extradite Dr. Yusuf Sonmez.

And there's another

key player Ratel wants,

the middleman who made the

Medicus machine run smoothly.

After all, someone

had to organize

blood tests and tissue matching.

Someone had to book flights

and take care of logistics.

And hundreds of

thousands of dollars

had to cross oceans

and change hands.

According to Ratel, Moshe

Harel was that someone.

- [Jonathan] He is

the fixer, the person

that arranges all of

this, the business end

of the trafficking conspiracy.

- He informed me

right from the outset,

that as soon as they complete

the required medical tests,

they have so many

donors that they can do

the operation within

one week or two.

And he, at a point, told me,

"Well, you know, we're ready.

"We're waiting for you."

And I said, "What is these guys?

"I mean, you have a

football team of donors?"

And he says, "Well,

pretty close to it."

- [Narrator] Moshe Harel

was arrested in Pristina

when the Medicus

clinic was raided

by the Kosovo police

but was released on bail

with a promise to

return for the trial.

Since then, he has disappeared,

except on Facebook.

And though he didn't respond

to messages, he did post that

he is in an open relationship

and he likes Restauranteers.

But for Raul Fain,

Moshe was the crucial

link to a life-saving operation.

Even in the black market,

in addition to a surgeon,

every transplant

involves a nephrologist,

a kidney doctor who

ensures that the recipient

is suitable for a

transplant and that he's

matched with an

appropriate donor.

- Moshe informed

me that there is

this doctor by the

name of Zaki Shapira

that is a quite a well-known

nephrologist in Israel.

And he kind of jokingly

says, "Go on the internet.

"You'll find him.

"He's already famous."

And he didn't really specify

to me what is he famous for.

Dr. Zaki Shapira had

a very important role

of doing the matching and

checking all the blood tests

and making sure that, you know,

which is quite probably

equal responsibility

to the doctor that

is doing the surgery.

- [Narrator] Jonathan Ratel

has named Zaki Shapira

an unindicted co-conspirator

in the Medicus case.

- [Director] Do you have a

sense of what this person did?

- Absolutely.

- [Director] What?

- Well as an unindicted

co-conspirator, they're part

of the organized criminal

group involved in this.

And they are at

the level or near

the level of Sonmez and Harel.

If that individual is beyond

the reach of the prosecutor,

the person cannot be indicted.

- [Director] You're powerless.

- The prosecutor

can't reach them.

- Dr. Shapira was like a father.

He, at all time, tried

to calm both of us.

- You feel very assured

when somebody makes a trip

and takes the time

to come and see you

and to come to reassure you

that the surgery went out okay

and there are no, everything

seems to be in place.

- [Narrator] Controversy has

shadowed Professor Zaki Shapira

for decades and he has declined

all interviews in the past.

But now, he agrees

to go on camera

for the first time and

break his public silence.

- [Narrator] Dr. Shapira is one

of Israel's most distinguished

transplant surgeons.

In the early days,

with ambiguous laws

and a dire shortage of kidneys,

few questions were asked about

the source of his donors.

- [Narrator] When an

ethics review board

began to question his methods,

Shapira moved some

of his business

into Eastern Europe

and to nearby Turkey,

where he found high

clinical standards,

a large supply of

willing kidney sellers,

and a brilliant surgeon

named Yusuf Sonmez.

In 2007, the two physicians

were arrested in Istanbul

during one of their operations

and spent three months

together in a Turkish prison

before the charges

against them were dropped.

- [Director] How many operations

do you think you've done?

- [Director] So 850

times you traveled

to foreign locations to operate?

- [Narrator] Operating

in clandestine

locations posed some

unique challenges.

- [Director] And nothing

happened, they were all fine?

- [Director] Doesn't

it bother you

that your reputation

may have suffered?

- The truth is that that

organ came from someone,

and that person was exploited.

They were extremely vulnerable,

and the harvesting of their

organ is an outrageous act.

(dramatic strings music)

- [Narrator] Five

hours from Manila

is a province where

the kidney trade

has cut a swath through

the male population.

(machine clicking)

So many in this region

have sold their kidney,

they have formed a

small support group.

(dramatic piano

and strings music)

- [Narrator] Even in

this destitute corner

of the Philippines, no one

claims to have been drugged,

duped, or dragged into

the operating room.

They are, however, victims of

a system that is unregulated

and rife with the

potential for exploitation.

(dramatic synth music)

- [Narrator] The

thrill of a quick

payoff extends across villages

and through families,

like these three brothers.

Noli used his windfall to

buy a motorized skateboard,

the only form of

transportation in his village.

The fares he charges,

mere pennies a ride,

sustain his family of four.

(oil sizzling)

- [Narrator] For all the

men the lure is simple,

more cash than they could earn

in a year or two

of village labor.

But Hector is one man for

whom it all went wrong.

(rooster crows)

He's been suffering

crippling pains for months.

(rooster crows)

- [Narrator] Hector

spent the proceeds

of his surgery long ago,

so the production team pays

for an ultrasound to find the

source of his chronic pain.

- Based on the

ultrasound findings,

the left kidney has

a mild renal disease.

And this is a sign of a

deteriorating left kidney.

There is really a problem.

He will be a candidate

for dialysis,

and he himself will be

looking for a donor.

- [Narrator] Hector should never

have been accepted as a donor.

He likely had kidney

disease long before

he sold his organ

on the black market.

His remaining kidney

is failing quickly.

Probably, tragically,

so is the one

that he donated to

a dying stranger.

No one knows how many other

horror stories could be told

in China, in India, all

across the developing world.

Yet for all its dangers,

the lure of using the body

as a bankbook

remains irresistible.

(family socializing)

It's now been

almost eight years,

and Mary Jo still hasn't made

it to the top of the list.

- I don't how she

does it some days.

Putting those needles in her arm

for eight hours every other day

and then working and

taking care of her family.

You know, and it's been going

on for almost eight years.

It's inconceivable,

and it's wearing on us.

It's wearing on her, especially.

You know, she's growing,

she's getting tired.

I feel terrible about it.

I'm inspired by her.

Like, I used to be

irritated 'cause

I was maybe a bit more

immature and selfish,

but now it's, you know,

we've got a kid together,

and we've got a life

that we've built,

and you've got to suck it up.

(dramatic strings

and piano music)

- I was told I was somewhere

like halfway up the list,

which surprised me a little

bit because, when I started,

they told me seven

or eight years.

Now, they're telling me possibly

10 years, so I don't know.

- When you were here last time,

we were thinking very strongly

about trying to figure out

how I could go overseas

to get a kidney

because we knew that I

didn't have very long

and nothing seemed

to be happening here.

But I said, at the

time, that I wasn't

going to give up

on alternate paths.

I do not believe that

very many people recognize

that they can do an altruistic

donation to some person.

There are a couple

websites, in particular,

Matching donors has caused

more than 300 transplants

in the last six years,

and it's always possible

that I might wind

up being one of them

if I find the right

person at the right time.

- How many people are

there in the world

that voluntarily want

to give up a kidney

because somebody needs kidneys?

I think the number

is pretty small.

It doesn't seem like

it's in the cards.

- Unfortunately, a large number

of those potential donors

are looking to donate

to somebody young,

with young children,

whose life they could save

and they can be a hero, but I'm

not going to badger anybody.

I will send one email

to somebody and say,

"Would you consider

me as a recipient?"

and explain who I am

and what I am and so on.

And I don't know why more

people do not respond to me.

Part of the problem may be

that I come on too strong.

I don't know.

It's a hit or miss proposition,

but anything's worth a try,

and all avenues

are worth pursuing.

(gulls squawking)

- [Narrator] In Turkey, the

infamous Dr. Sonmez is still

at large, but surprisingly,

he does respond to his email,

with a dinner invitation in

Istanbul, no cameras, no crew.

The director travels to

Turkey to meet the surgeon.

She assumed the meeting

would be clandestine

but is surprised to find

that dinner includes

his parents, his wife,

and young daughter.

The next day, he

phones the director

and agrees to an interview.

Why?

Because his mother trusts her.

- I think that he has

become a scapegoat.

There's nobody he

killed, nobody.

You see, he's a

very good surgeon.

Everybody accepts it.

- He might look

scary from outside,

but he's quite soft inside.

- [Director] I think

Yusuf is coming.

- Yusuf is coming.

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Dr. Yusuf Somnez, he's a

very interesting individual

in the sense that he's

highly intelligent,

sophisticated,

and quite worldly.

But I think it's

quite clear that he is

a significant

international component

to organ trafficking

around the world.

- [Narrator] Yusuf

Sonmez has outflanked

the Turkish justice

system six times,

but if he ever

leaves his homeland,

Jonathan Ratel will be waiting.

The Interpol Red Notice, an

international arrest warrant,

has trapped Dr.

Sonmez in Turkey.

The moment he leaves

the country, he risks

getting arrested.

- [Director] I would gather

it's a little bit annoying?

- No.

- It's not annoying?

- No, why?

- Look, crimes against life

and health, people smuggling,

trafficking, and

illegal immigration.

- [Narrator] Dr. Sonmez

seems less disturbed

about his fate than

about his photo.

- I just told him, "Please,

Yusuf, we are in trouble.

"You see, we are very,

very sad about you.

"Please leave becoming a surgeon

"and working as a

surgeon, you see."

(chuckles) What he

told me, do you know?

"Are you going to

say, to tell me,

"Mother, that I'm going

to be a grocer?" (laughs)

"I cannot do it because

it's not my business.

"I cannot do it.

"Yes, and only I

can do one thing.

"I am a doctor."

- [Narrator] While Dr.

Sonmez blames the media

for his notoriety, he

recognizes that he has been

operating at the

margins of the law.

- [Director] Why did you go

to Azerbaijan, to Kosovo?

You are begging for trouble.

- Dr. Sonmez cannot

understand why

there is any legal

question about it,

and the morality of what

he is doing escapes him.

I think that he believes that

he is providing a service

to extremely

desperate individuals.

- [Director] If a donor comes

from Moldova or Ukraine--

- [Director] And

you have no idea

that the donors

were getting paid?

- This Kosovo case,

because it touched

really all of

parts of the world,

it affected not just

me but my family.

After this case dropped

in the newspapers,

my uncle and my aunt, they

called, and they asked,

"You know that you are

living with a criminal?"

Because people do believe

what's written in the media.

If, for example, in Yusuf's

case, if the media said that

he is the boss of the Mafia,

people do believe that one.

- It is a case as gruesome

as it is shocking.

A surgeon and six other

suspects in Kosovo are accused

of running an international

organ trafficking ring.

- [Reporter] Kosovo

has become a haven

in the illicit trade

of human organs.

- At least seven suspects

in Kosovo have been charged

with persuading people

to sell their organs.

- The victims were

lured from other

countries and had

their kidneys stolen.

- [Reporter] The gang

allegedly preyed on those

living in extreme poverty.

- The gang.

- [Reporter] The indictment

says an Ontario man, Raul Fain,

received a kidney

from a Russian woman.

- The fact that my

name was mentioned

kind of makes me very uneasy,

as if I knowingly participated

in this particular scheme,

which really fairly honestly,

if I wouldn't have

been part of it

and I would just be

a regular TV watcher,

I would be very offended

myself of how people

take advantage of other people

and mislead them and so on.

But how do you counter that?

You have to go and

say "No, I know

"that the facts are different."

- The medical ethics

of this are clear

to anybody involved

in the profession,

and you have to step over

that line quite clearly,

and the only reason that

someone would do that,

in my opinion, is absolute

pure and simple greed.

That's what motivates this, is

the motive for obscene profits.

- There were doctors

involved and nephrologists

and surgeon and all this people,

and I think they did it

more than just pure money.

I mean, everybody

works for money.

You don't work for nothing.

But I don't think that was their

primary motive for doing this.

(dramatic synth music)

- [Narrator] The

economics of the organ

trade are a

challenge to unravel.

The compensation

that donors receive

for selling their

kidney varies widely.

The poorer the country,

the lower the price.

In India, the payoff

can be as low as $1,000.

In Egypt, it's $2,000.

In Turkey, up to $10,000.

The cost of the operation

might be ten times higher,

but many people get a

piece of the action.

- What does everybody get?

I really have no idea.

All I can tell you is there

are many hands in the pie

because there are so

many people involved,

and each one has

an important role.

I mean, just look at the people

that I came in

contact with, right?

I have a Moshe.

I have a surgeon.

We are here in a

fully-staffed clinic

with two male nurses

at all time for us.

So, you know, it adds up.

- [Narrator] Back in Manila,

Eddieboy's operation

is finally scheduled.

(engine purring)

- [Narrator] The next day,

Diane accompanies

Eddieboy to the hospital.

(suspenseful strings

and piano music)

A few hours after

Eddieboy is admitted,

a member of the production team,

rigged with a hidden camera

and posing as a relative,

will meet him in his room.

The goal is to

identify the recipient

and see how much

money changes hands.

(people socializing)

But several hours after

leaving Eddieboy off

at the hospital, Diane

calls and asks to meet.

Surprisingly, she's

with Eddieboy.

- [Narrator] It's

an unlikely story.

Transplants are rarely

canceled at the last minute.

With a little investigation,

we learn the truth.

Uncomfortable with the cameras

and the focus on Eddieboy,

Diane replaced him

at the last minute

with another one of her clients,

a man who has just returned

home with fresh bandages

and what should have

been Eddieboy's cash.

No country is immune to

the trade in human organs.

- [Jason] My family

thought I was nuts.

At first, it was like,

"You shouldn't do this.

"Why are you doing this?

"Why are you even

thinking about it?"

- [Narrator] In a

suburb of Philadelphia,

Jason Chamberlain sold his

kidney on the internet.

- [Dianne] What are you doing?

- What are you doin', hun?

- Gotta go on Craigslist.

- You're gonna go on

Craigslist, for what?

- I'm going to go on the

free section and see if I can

find stuff to clean up

and resell on Craigslist.

- I love you son.

God bless you.

- I'm basically doing

whatever I can to survive.

In the course of doing

like Google searches,

I came across a gentleman that

posted an ad, "In

need of a kidney."

I thought it was just

somebody playing a game,

so I actually replied to

it, and I got a reply back.

"No, I'm dead serious.

"I'm in desperate need."

I asked him what kind of

compensation I would receive.

He offered me $20,000.

So after thinking about,

you know, that number,

I came to the decision

that, that would seem fair.

- I was like, "Are you crazy?"

I'm like, you know, it's

a lot involved in it.

- I was trying to start

a business so I figured,

"Wait a minute.

"Okay, maybe I can get

something out of this,

"and he can get what he needs."

So, it's a one hand washes

the other situation.

There was, you know, plenty

of trips back and forth

to the hospital, pre-testing,

lots of pre-testing.

His antibodies and his blood

was rejecting just about

everybody that was being

tested, so it was a long shot.

It was down to the

point where I was

the only match out

of over 70 people.

- [Narrator] Just like Diane's

impoverished clients in Manila,

Jason was able to bluff his way

through a pre-surgery interview.

- We never mentioned that

it was a Craigslist ad,

but I know they had

their suspicions.

They were just

trying to trip me up,

to make sure that I was doing

this on my own free will

and I wasn't being, you know,

I wasn't selling the kidney.

I don't feel exploited,

and I don't feel

that I exploited the

recipient either.

I feel that it

was just something

we both agreed on, you know?

I needed to live, I needed

to survive, and so did he.

So that's why, you know, I'm

sitting here a living donor,

and he has a kidney

that's functional.

(dramatic synth and piano music)

(cars honking)

- The ultimate good for society

is saving someone's life.

The government

encourages me to walk

into that hospital

right there and say,

"I want to donate my

kidney altruistically."

So the act itself is

considered a good act!

So why not offer

people incentives to

do the right thing?

What's wrong with that?

If donating a kidney was

considered to be horrific,

if cutting into my

body to save a stranger

was considered to be

immoral or horrific,

then I would understand

the government saying,

"We're not going to allow that,

"not for money, and

not altruistically."

But they allow it

altruistically,

so why not allow it for money?

- [Narrator] Robby

Berman is an activist,

advocating for a

government-regulated

system to compensate

kidney donors.

- So this is the script.

Basically, you guys

are gonna be standing

across the street,

and you're gonna be

looking at this

building as if there's

a fire in the building and

there's a 10-year-old boy

on the roof that's

screaming for help.

As soon as the

fire starts going,

I want everyone to

start looking up.

(flame crackles and hisses)

- Help, help!

- You know, it's clear

to me that if you want

to get a message across,

YouTube is the way to go.

So I want to make

a video that will,

in a fun way, get

the message across.

The kid represents

7,000 Americans

that are dying every year.

- That's my boy!

That's my son!

- You turn around and you say,

"I will give a thousand dollars

"to anyone who

will save my son."

- For a thousand dollars,

I'll risk my life.

- The guy in the

black leather jacket,

he is the poor person

who is being exploited.

Sorry, I can't let you do it.

- Who are you?

- My name is Peter

Paternalistic.

Peter Paternalistic, my alter

ego, is the establishment.

It's the government.

It's the people who

think they know better.

- Why won't you let

me save the boy?

- Because your

motives are impure.

You're doing it for

the thousand dollars.

- Well, I was doing it for the

money but also to save his life.

- Yes, but to save a

life, maybe next week

you would take a thousand

dollars to sell your kidney.

- My God!

- [Robby] (laughs)

Okay, that was funny.

That's good.

Let's do that again.

(dramatic strings music)

- [Narrator] The crux

of the Medicus case

lies with the exploitation

of the victims

who were compelled by

desperation to sell a body part.

- There is a propaganda machine

as far as looking at it

from only one viewpoint,

that organs are stolen

against people's wishes.

But I can say that

from my experience

that the donors seemed quite

willingly to do the surgery.

- All of the donors

have returned to

their home countries.

They're difficult to locate.

We're trying to

find these people

and have them provide evidence.

Many of them may

not be cooperative.

They may feel ashamed

or betrayed or injured.

- [Narrator] Raul Fain's

donor holds the key

to what really

happened at Medicus.

Among the documents seized

when the Medicus clinic

was raided is a grainy

photocopy of her passport.

The alleged victim of

this international organ

trafficking ring is

a woman named Anna,

from a country called Moldova.

Raul's donor will

be the final link

in the anatomy of a

black market operation.

Moldova, like Kosovo,

is a fledgling

republic overrun

by criminal gangs.

Once known for exporting

wine, vegetables, and fruit,

it's now known for

exporting impoverished

donors to the

global organ trade.

Here, in a tiny

flat, is the haunting

face from the Medicus files.

Raul's kidney donor,

Anna Rusalenco,

is 48 years old and lives alone.

Her journey to the

Medicus clinic began

with an ad in a

Russian-language newspaper.

- They were dressed very

careful, very appropriate.

One had quite a few

pieces of jewelry.

- They seemed to be smiling.

They didn't appear

to be nervous.

(engine roars)

- I was asked, at the time,

to sign a statement that,

you know, everything is

done quite, quite normally

and that nobody has forced

anybody into doing any of this.

- [Director] And this is the

walk that you take everyday?

- A month and a half

ago, we were looking

at options that

weren't very good.

But I said that I

wasn't going to give up,

and then I lucked into Laurie.

I need a 16-ounce...

We spent the whole

last month texting

each other to the

point where I filled up

my text box at least

three times, okay?

- You only need one kidney.

I got two and they're healthy.

And so if I can give

one to somebody else

to live an equally happy life,

you know, and healthy

and that's great.

- I just happened to

luck into meeting her

at the right time,

in the right place.

and Walter contacted

me the first day.

I think I'm just comfortable

with him, you know?

He says what he has

to say, you know?

He lays it all out there.

It's not candy-coated,

and I'm used to that.

That's what I'm from.

I mean, it's like being at home.

People have asked me, you know,

"Why not a younger child or

a woman or a younger man?"

I have a hard time with that.

The value of his life is

nothing less than a six-year-old

or a four-year-old or, you know?

He's equally as important

as the next person.

(machine beeping)

- Laurie is giving me a

gift, and I love her for it.

She is giving me back my life.

That is a gift that

can never be repaid.

- I'm just afraid that

when somebody really comes

and asks you, "Are

you sure that Walter's

"the person that you

want to donate to?"

that you'll start

to think it over

and you'll say,

"Well, maybe not."

- As much as this is for Walter,

this is really for me too.

When I lost a very dear friend,

I would have given

anything to save her life.

- [Nancy] Okay.

- And um--

- [Nancy] And, of course,

you couldn't, yeah.

- I didn't have that

opportunity, and

I'm so sorry. (sobs)

And if I can help one person...

Live his life with his wife

and his children and

his grandchildren--

- [Nancy] Oh, wow.

- That's, it's

important to me in here.

- Well, thank you

so much for that.

- [Jeffery] How's

life been on dialysis?

- It sucks.

- It sucks, huh, yeah.

- [Mary Jo] How's the

transplant list doing?

- Part of the problem is that

the way things stand now,

there are separate

lists for each

of the regions and

organ donation varies.

They're better in some

parts of the province

than they are in others, and

Toronto has lagged behind.

- [Mary Jo] So I could have been

on a shorter list all this time.

- Had you been

referred there, yes.

- [Mary Jo] That's a little

heartbreaking to hear.

- It is, it is, yeah.

- I've just learned that I'm

on the longest list in Ontario,

(scoffs) so which is really

somewhat discouraging

and upsetting

because I live here,

and had I known,

maybe we could have

decided to live somewhere else.

I don't know if we

would've or not.

It's just, again, it's

something I didn't know.

I was ignorant to.

And, you know, you just

wonder when it's gonna happen.

So I have no choice

but to be positive

and deal with

things as they come.

(machine beeping)

I do as much as I

can, but, I just,

I would love to feel good.

I'm tired.

I start early in the

morning, and I'm done.

By nine, 10 o'clock,

like, I am spent,

and then I have to go

shove needles up my arms.

So yeah, I would love

to get off the machine.

I really would, and

the idea of doing

another two years

doesn't make me happy.

- [Walter] God, I'm scared.

- [Nancy] Don't be, why?

- [Walter] Just surgery.

- [Narrator] Altruistic donors

like Laurie Wood are

one in a million.

Walter has won the lottery.

(machinery beeping)

(dramatic piano

and strings music)

- [Walter] Hi, Troy.

Hi, sweetness.

- It was really good just

to see Walter this morning,

and he looked incredible

and that's great, you know?

It's a good feeling you can make

that kind of a

difference in somebody.

You're not gonna

make lots of trouble.

You be good, behave yourself.

- I know I'm gonna

make lots of trouble.

- No you're not.

- I owe Laurie the

rest of my life.

My life expectancy,

as a statistic,

just went up, a lot.

(dramatic piano music)

- [Narrator] Brought

together by fate,

Anna Rusalenco and

Raul Fain are now

linked in a court

of law as well.

Jonathan Ratel's

indictment of Doctor Sonmez

and the rest of the

Kosovo transplant network

has brought suspicion and

detectives into their homes.

- I had a visit from the

RCMP, which informed me

that they are acting

on behalf of Interpol.

- There were always

surprise-type visits

and not finding me home,

spreading their business card

to all my neighbors

and telling them,

"Oh, I'm looking for Mr. Fain.

"Do you know where he is?"

and so on and so forth.

I found this method a

little bit disconcerting.

- I had no choice but

to give a testimony

or I would have faced

a jail sentence.

- There was a guy

in Brooklyn here

who got caught six months

ago being a broker,

buying and selling

kidneys, and he made money,

he became wealthy,

but he broke the law,

and he saved hundreds of lives.

I follow a law, I

observe the law,

and I have let

hundreds of people die.

Who's moral and who's immoral?

I think I'm immoral,

and that guy

who broke the law,

he's more moral.

He saved hundreds of lives.

So yeah, I'm working

within the system,

but I'm getting

sick of the system.

("Out of Time" by Blur)

- [Narrator] Every year,

thousands of illicit

kidney transplants

continue to take place

in countries around the world.

In all these cases, the

recipients are deathly sick

and the donors are

poor and desperate.

This is the thread that unites

donors, doctors, and patients

in a web of fortune,

fear, and infamy.

In Kosovo, a thrust to shut

down the global kidney trade

has captured seven

local defendants,

but the major players

are far away and free.

In Turkey, Dr. Yusuf

Sonmez, a virtuoso

labeled a vulture, has

relinquished his scalpel.

In Israel, Zaki Shapira,

an unrepentant pioneer,

has quietly retired.

In Canada, Raul lives.

In Moldova, Anna survives.

And all around the world, the

dance of desperation goes on.

- This case is the

hallmark of a rank

exploitation of the

human condition.

These victims were

identified, selected--

- I just hope that the donor

has benefited from this

at least as much as I did

because I benefited a lot.

* Where's the love song

* Set us free

* Too many people down

* Everything turning

the wrong way around

* And I don't know

what love will be

* But if we start dreaming now

* Lord knows we'll

never leave the clouds

* And you've been so busy lately

* That you haven't

found the time

* To open up your mind

* And watch the world spinning

* Gently out of time

* Feel the sunshine on your face

* It's in a computer now

* Gone to the future

* Way out in space

* And you've been so busy lately

* That you haven't

found the time

* To open up your mind

* And watch the world spinning

* Gently out of time

* And you've been so busy lately

* That you haven't

found the time

* To open up your mind

* And watch the world spinning

* Gently out of time

* Tell me I'm not dreaming

* But are we out of time

* We're out of time

* Out of time

* Out of time

* Out of time

* Out of time