Business Insider | June 29 2012
Constant headlines about confusing bank recapitalizations and EU summits can obscure the human cost of economic hardship.
A fascinating piece from Dan Bilefsky of The New York Times takes a look at people in Europe who are attempting to sell organs just to put food on the table.
Organ shortages, poverty, and the internet have created a black market where a kidney can fetch $40,000, despite national and international efforts to crack down on the practice.
From the New York Times:
“In Spain, Italy, Greece and Russia, advertisements by people peddling organs — as well as hair, sperm and breast milk — have turned up on the Internet, with asking prices for lungs as high as $250,000.”
The combination of job losses and a slashed social safety net has created pockets of desperate poverty that European leaders seem to be ignoring. Maybe it is time to focus less on banks and more on people.
Read the full article @ The New York Times
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