Havocscope is currently estimating the illicit market value for organ trafficking to be $50 million based on the following sources.

1. According to the World Health Organization, the average price paid to a kidney donor on the black market is ” likely to be about US $5000.

2. According to organ trafficking expert Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a conservative estimated of the number of organs trafficked on the black market is 15,000 each year.

15,000 estimated kidneys X $5,000 = $75,000,000.

Please note that the figure is meant to present a general idea of the amount of money involved in this market. The figure does not represent the profits involved in the activity, nor does it include the amount of money paid by the organ recipient.

Sources:
World Health Organization, “Organ Trafficking and transplantation pose new challenges,” IN FOCUS, September 1, 2004, (accessed: April 2, 2007).

“15,000 kidneys trafficked each year: Organ Watch,” MSN News India, February 15, 2008.

According to the World Health Organization, the going price for the seller of a kidney is around $5,000.  The broker who purchases the kidney then goes on to sell it to wealthy transplant patients for prices between $100,000 to $200,000.

Source:  AFP, “Jobless Jordanians exploited by organ traffickers,” Google News, October 21, 2009.

Authorities in Jordan uncovered 80 cases of organ trafficking in 2007.

Source:  AFP, “Jordan charges 11 ‘organ traffickers’,” Google News, September 30, 2009.

According to a kidney researcher quoted by CNN, between 1,500 to 2,000 kidney transplants done in the United States could be using illegally obtained kidneys.

Source: Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick, ” Donor says he got thousands for his kidney,” CNN, September 1, 2009.

Chinese State Media reported that 65 percent of the organs available for donations in China comes from people who were executed on death row.

1 percent of the estimated 1 million people who need transplants in China are able to receive one.

Source: Associated Press, “Most China organ transplants come from death row,” Google News, August 25, 2009.

Poor people in Egypt are selling their kidneys to organ traffickers for as little as $2,000, according to a report by the Associated Press.  On the buyer side, the article reports that rich Saudis are paying up to $16,000 for a black market transplant.

Source:  Associated Press, “Black market organ trade still thrives in Egypt,” MSNBC, March 17, 2009.

17 Japanese tourists are being investigated after being accused of purchasing kidneys on the black market in China.  The tourists are believed to have been “organ-tourists”, people who travel to foreign countries to receive a kidney transplant illegally. The tourists are reported to have paid $87,000 for the operation. It is believed that the organs were harvested from executed prisoners. 

News Source: Mark McDonald, “Report of ‘organ tourism’ stirs news Japan-China controversy,” International Herald Tribune, February 17, 2009. 

According to the World Health Organization, one-fifth of the 70,000 kidney transplants that occur each year are using kidneys taken from the black market.

Source:  Jeneen Interlandi, “Not Just Urban Legend,” Newsweek,  January 10, 2009.

A Singapore tycoon was sentenced to jail for one day for his attempt to illegally buy a kidney on the black market.

From Bloomberg News:

Retail tycoonTang Wee Sung was sentenced to one day in jail and fined S$17,000 ($11,813) by a Singapore court for trying to buy a kidney and lying about it in a case that’s forced lawmakers to rethink a ban on organ trading.

Tang’s “extreme ill health” was considered in sentencing the former head of CK Tang Ltd., one of the city-state’s oldest department store chains, District Judge Ng Peng Hong said today. Still, there was no suggestion Tang, 55, was driven to buying a kidney after failing to get a donated organ from a relative, or any indication he had approached family members for one, Ng said.

Tang was to pay a black market price of $300,000 for a kidney.

Paula Mackinnon of the BBC reports on her experiences in the black market when researching the kidney trade.

From the BBC:

In my research I discovered some frankly shocking things.

There is a black market in kidneys here in the UK.

I secretly filmed people trying to sell me their kidneys, exploiting the vulnerability of someone who is desperate to help a family member.

They are also trying to exploit the very law that has changed to allow me to make a ’stranger donation’.

They wanted to fool the authorities – the first woman I met started with an asking price of £250,000, another man wanted the ‘price of a Mercedes’ – £60,000.

I met them in cafes across the UK and their actions were shocking.

They know they are doing something illegal and just don’t seem to care.