{"id":330736,"date":"2025-04-21T14:10:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T13:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=330736"},"modified":"2025-04-21T15:45:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T14:45:27","slug":"blood-economy-how-irans-clerical-regime-legalized-a-market-for-organs-and-turned-poverty-into-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/society\/blood-economy-how-irans-clerical-regime-legalized-a-market-for-organs-and-turned-poverty-into-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood Economy: How Iran\u2019s Clerical Regime Legalized a Market for Organs and Turned Poverty into Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A patient recovering after kidney removal surgery in Iran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a revelation that stunned even hardened observers of Iran\u2019s crisis-ridden society, Iranian authorities recently uncovered a transnational organ trafficking ring<\/a> operating in plain sight in Tehran. The gang\u2014composed of Iraqi and Iranian nationals\u2014exploited the desperate, harvesting kidneys and corneas from impoverished foreign donors and selling them on Iran\u2019s underground transplant market for up to 70 billion tomans \u2014 just under $1 million at the free-market exchange rate.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t just a criminal story. It is a political one. What unfolded in Tehran is not an anomaly\u2014it is a predictable consequence of a system designed to commodify human suffering, with the blessing and legal framework of the regime itself.<\/p>\n

The Only State-Sanctioned Kidney Market in the World<\/h3>\n

This scandal did not unfold in a vacuum. Iran is the only country in the world where the sale of kidneys by living unrelated donors is not only legal but fully institutionalized<\/a> through state-approved charities. Since the 1990s, the Islamic Republic has maintained a program where a government foundation registers buyers and sellers, matches them, and sets a nominal fixed price \u2014 originally around $4,600. On paper, it\u2019s a controlled, equitable system. But in practice, as exposed by analysts<\/a> like Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Francis Delmonico in 2018, it has created a state-engineered “kidney market” where the poor compete to sell their organs, and “regulation has not ended the black market \u2014 it has simply made it an official policy.”<\/p>\n

\n

In the heart-wrenching saga of a nation teetering on the brink of economic collapse, a hauntingly lucrative enterprise emerges, reaching unprecedented heights in Iran: the shameless trafficking of human organs.#IranRevolution<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/bnNkbNYYnt<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n