Rabbi Brokered Black Market Kidney Trade

This is just plain horrific. It says the Rabbi got the donners from Israel. It would obviously be interesting to see if the donators were Jewish or Arab.

Yesterday in New Jersey, 44 people, including a rabbi, were apprehended in a large corruption investigation of arranging the private sale of kidneys from donors in Israel.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum described himself to an uncover FBI agent and a cooperating witness as a “matchmaker” who could set up to hire a donor in Israel to come to the U.S.A. to donate a kidney in exchange for a $10,000 fee, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney. Those kidneys are in turn sold for as much as $180,000 to transplant recipients who otherwise may die. The operations were done in US hospitals.

Rosenbaum, 58, is a member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, where he told neighbors he was in the construction business.

“The allegations about an organ trafficking ring in the United States are appalling,” said John Davis, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation. This is the first documented case of organ trafficking in the U.S.

The deficit of organs accessible for donation from dissociated donors has led to the grim black market that lives today. Gruesome underground kidney markets are nothing new. National Geographic covered a story on poor neighborhoods in India known as “kidney village”, because residents illegally sell their kidneys for approximately $800, far less than the $160,000 Rosenbaum allegedly charged. A completely new industry – transplant tourism – has emerged to meet the needs of the wealthy patients creating demand.