Tales from the Organ Trade | The Black Market Explained

[00:00:11]It is one of the great miracles of modern medicine, the saving of a dying patient with a transplanted [music] body part.

[00:00:22]But there is a worldwide shortage of organs and a surplus of poor people who believe that [music] the solution to their suffering is not to receive an organ, but to sell one.

[00:00:34]>> [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [music] [singing] >> Joe Boy, a 44-year-old husband and father, yearns to lift his family from abject poverty.

[00:01:39]He's decided to sell one of his kidneys.

[00:01:43]His home is a crawl space under someone else's shack.

[00:01:48]It's too small to stand up in and there's no electricity.

[00:02:37]>> [music] >> In the Philippines, like almost everywhere else on Earth, selling a part of your body is illegal.

[00:02:46]The result is a flourishing black market run by backstreet brokers like Diane.

[00:02:52]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 [music] theirs.

[00:03:14]Diane has offered Joe Boy $2,500, double what he'd earn from unskilled labor in a year.

[00:03:37]All they need now is someone who is desperately ill.

[00:03:43]Every year, all over the world, thousands of people like Joe Boy make the same decision.

[00:03:51]50 years ago, it wasn't possible to [music] take one kidney from another to save a life. Now, it's almost routine.

[00:03:59]We are born with two.

[00:04:01]With proper care, we can live and thrive with one.

[00:04:07]But the demand for this organ far exceeds the supply.

[00:04:11]So many desperate patients turn to the black market where, >> [music] >> in some countries, you can pick up a kidney for the price of a laptop.

[00:04:29]I was diagnosed at 21 >> [music] >> that I had kidney failure.

[00:04:34]Generally, when this happens, it happens when you're older.

[00:04:37]Of course, you go [music] into denial and you think, "No way, this can't be happening to me."

[00:04:43]I'm just trying to [music] live the life I think I would have lived if this didn't happen.

[00:04:49]>> [snorts] >> Mary Jo has been waiting for a kidney transplant for 6 years.

[00:04:55]She's kept alive on dialysis.

[00:04:59]Dialysis, [music] what it does is I mean it it cleans your blood, but it it's not it's not just taking out the toxins, it's taking out everything. [music] So, anything good that's in your body as well comes out at the same time. So, you know, you're wiped out. When [music] you get off, you're you're completely wiped out. So, it's I mean, IT TAKES ITS TOLL.

[00:05:18]I'VE GOT STUFF HAPPENING ALL THE TIME.

[00:05:20]I've got a 3-year-old kid who's got special needs. I've got a husband. I've got a a house. I've got a career.

[00:05:27]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.

[00:05:34]So, this is my dialysis machine.

[00:05:42]Doing dialysis is a very traumatizing experience for anybody. It took me, [music] I'd say, at least a good year to really get used to sticking sharp needles in my arm.

[00:05:54]And you have to do dialysis every other day.

[00:05:57]It just changes [music] you. It it changes the way you look at things. It changes your way of life, your perspective on things, and how you would do things [music] normally.

[00:06:17]You can't stay [music] on this machine forever. It doesn't do what a kidney does.

[00:06:27]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.

[00:06:35]This is unless somebody offers me a kidney or unless a cadaver becomes available.

[00:06:42]This is what keeps me alive.

[00:06:56]There's no point in having a bad attitude. You you put up with what you have to put up with and there's [music] no point in complaining about it. It's a matter of just uh what you have to [music] deal with.

[00:07:12]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 8 years, probably.

[00:07:30]It's not living. Um it's existing.

[00:07:37]So, Walter, how long have you been on the transplant list already?

[00:07:40]>> I've almost 2 years. Wow. What do I have? Probably 2 or 3 years before I probably have problems.

[00:07:46]Currently, people that were put on the transplant list that at the time you were, they're waiting anywhere from 4 to 5 years for a kidney to become available unless they have a living donor. Right.

[00:08:04]Patients who are on dialysis have an increased [music] mortality and that mortality hasn't changed in the last 15, 20 [music] years. As a doctor, if you're in a clinic of 100 people that you're treating, 20 of those people are going to die each year.

[00:08:19]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.

[00:08:35]And that is really the choice I'm facing.

[00:08:43]Waiting for him to get to the top of the list >> Walter ain't going to make of transplant uh cadaver transplants um just doesn't seem like it's going to happen.

[00:08:55]And, you know, it's Yeah, I mean, a a a foreign situation obviously would would not be our first choice, but at this point it looks like it may be our only choice.

[00:09:08]In Toronto, Raul Fain [music] already made the choice that Walter is considering.

[00:09:13]He mortgaged his house, went overseas, and paid $100,000 for a kidney. Where was this Minaret downtown? Uh no, across from the hotel.

[00:09:23]>> [snorts] >> Oh, here is uh how I look after the second day of surgery. My muscles have disappeared and >> muscles disappeared before the surgery.

[00:09:33]That's [clears throat] what renal failure does.

[00:09:36]And let me see this one. Approximately 10 years ago, I was uh diagnosed with uh uh a kidney disease. After about 9 years, my specialist suggested that he is really not able to to help me much more.

[00:09:51]So, I started to inquire about uh doing a transplant overseas.

[00:09:56]I had one ray of sunshine that through some family members it was transmitted to me that there was a gentleman that >> [music] >> had this operation in Israel. When he got the news that there may be um a possibility to go out of the country, we we just jumped. And when I contacted this person, he explained to me that the surgery does not take place in Israel.

[00:10:24]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.

[00:10:38]And the the whole operation has had to move to to Kosovo. The Turkey clinic has been closed.

[00:10:46]We have to go to Kosovo. So, whatever we were prepared for, we were not prepared for Kosovo.

[00:10:55]Kosovo is Europe's newest country, an orphaned slice of the former Yugoslavia corroded by corruption and strangled by organized crime.

[00:11:06]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.

[00:11:17]An organization now being investigated by the European Union.

[00:11:25]Jonathan Rattel is a prosecutor and a veteran of trouble spots like Iraq and Afghanistan.

[00:11:32]He is now been sent to Kosovo to crack down on organized crime and corruption.

[00:11:39]The first [music] case to land on his desk is the Medicus case.

[00:11:43]The charges, trafficking in body parts, organized crime, trafficking in persons, [music] and unlawful medical practice.

[00:11:51]Okay, what are the precise allegations that ground the indictment here?

[00:11:56]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 100,000 US dollars for a kidney. And they are harvesting these organs. That's the top-level allegation of this.

[00:12:23]To sell an organ, it's a terrible thing.

[00:12:25]But on the other hand, maybe it saves your life equally though it how it saved my life. We don't know.

[00:12:31]And I cannot profess to know what for what purpose did these people did it.

[00:12:36]You know, so that's why I can never be, you know, 100% one way and say it's bad and that's it.

[00:12:44]In this clinic called Medicus on the outskirts of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, Raul Fain's life was saved by one of Europe's most wanted men.

[00:12:54]One of the significant figures in this case is Dr. Yusuf Sonmez, without a doubt.

[00:12:59]This individual is a notorious organ trafficker and has [clears throat] engaged in this activity [music] in his own home country in Turkey for a long period of time.

[00:13:09]He is the surgical expertise in this case.

[00:13:13]Dr. Yusuf Sonmez is one of Turkey's most accomplished transplant surgeons and a fugitive from the international police.

[00:13:22]He performed more than 2,000 operations in Turkey and in dark corners of the former Soviet Empire.

[00:13:30]He first made headlines when he was caught on hidden camera allegedly offering a man $8,000 for his kidney.

[00:13:46]His alleged practice of dealing in body parts earned him the nicknames Dr. Vulture and the Turkish Frankenstein.

[00:13:54]Arrested six times in his own country, Sonmez escaped conviction by producing consent forms from his donors attesting [music] that ultimately no cash ever changed hands.

[00:14:08]>> [music] >> But now, the transplants he performed at the Medicus clinic in Kosovo have him in the legal crosshairs once again.

[00:14:19]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.

[00:14:29]He didn't have time for small talk.

[00:14:32]Although I tried to entertain a few a few words with him. I said, "I read a lot about you."

[00:14:39]>> [music] >> To what he said, "Yeah, all the beautiful things about me on the internet and you still came?" And I said, "Yes."

[00:14:50]We still came because you are the only one.

[00:14:55]>> [music] >> What really grounds this case is man's inhumanity to man.

[00:14:59]Anywhere from 10 to 15% of all organ transplants are illegal.

[00:15:05]This is an exploitation of the human condition that has to stop.

[00:15:10]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 but I don't see it like like a such a terrible thing provided that it's that is done in kind of an honest way.

[00:15:26]The Medicus case involves dozens of people across three continents.

[00:15:30]Raul was one of 20 patients who traveled to Kosovo to buy a kidney in 2008.

[00:15:36]20 people from Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Russia sold [music] their kidneys.

[00:15:41]The prosecution claims that Raul's transplant was performed by the surgeon [music] Yusuf Sonmez and aided by an international cast of characters that includes another doctor, a fixer, >> [music] >> and an exploited victim who gave up an organ.

[00:15:57]To track the sale of a black market kidney, the production team sets out to reassemble all the players from Raul's operation starting with the man at the center of the Medicus case.

[00:16:09]Amazingly, Dr. Sonmez, a fugitive from justice wanted by Interpol, has his own website. [music] But does Dr. Frankenstein answer his emails?

[00:16:31]The Philippines was once a prime destination for foreign patients desperate to buy a kidney.

[00:16:36]But with the global crackdown on organ trafficking, it's now affluent Filipinos who drive the trade.

[00:16:52]Diane gets word that a transplant is in the >> [music] >> She keeps a roster of potential organ sellers so that surgeons have a choice.

[00:17:02]Joe Boy has competition.

[00:17:06]Eddie Boy is a 22-year-old with the same blood type as Joe Boy and an equal ration of poverty and hopelessness.

[00:17:17]>> [music] [music] >> 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.

[00:17:58]To prevent abuse, Philippine law requires that a donor have a relationship with the recipient.

[00:18:05]This is the loophole that will get Diane's candidates through their interview.

[00:18:34]It takes Eddie Boy a while to catch on.

[00:18:37]But Diane has too much at stake to let him fail.

[00:19:02]Joe Boy is a quicker study.

[00:19:29]>> [music] >> Now, for Eddie Boy and Joe Boy, it's just a waiting game.

[00:19:44]>> [music] >> A few days later, there's a call from the hospital.

[00:20:10]Diane tells Joe Boy the news.

[00:20:32]>> [music] >> I really think we should look at other alternatives. Yeah, well.

[00:21:30]So, Laura, I appreciate [music] that, you know, in your situation, you don't really feel that you Sure. could be a donor, but I obviously [music] have mixed feelings.

[00:21:39]If if she were to suddenly have a change of heart and say, "Yes." [music] Uh What an enormous relief it would be for everyone, wouldn't it?

[00:21:47]>> I think it'd be 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.

[00:21:54]>> It's not even a rational decision, really. It's a It's a This is a piece of my body and I'm not going to give it away. Well, I understand that. Well, and surgery is scary, and things are scary, and but I've got lots of rational reasons, but the the actual reason is just that it it bothers me, the idea.

[00:22:11]>> know it would bother me, too. Yeah. And and you 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.

[00:22:21]>> Uh No, I could have told you already that that would be Of course, that would be different.

[00:22:24]>> [laughter] >> Right. Well, Yeah. I'm not Nettie, and of course, that would be different.

[00:22:30]Well, you know, I mean, it's it's 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 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. Right. But it being something that I'm not willing to do, I've I've made a decision not to help.

[00:23:03]I mean, I really only have three choices at this point.

[00:23:07]Okay. I either get a transplant overseas, I get a transplant in this country, or I die.

[00:23:14]It feels to me as though >> [music] >> 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. Is and taking advantage of their poverty, which is something that is I mean, it's wrong. Yeah, I I agree. There's no argument in the fact that other people in this country can't afford to do this kind of thing is unfair. Sure.

[00:23:41]>> it's it's it's the >> life is unfair. I know, and 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.

[00:23:49]>> That's true. I wish we were rich. Well, [laughter] whatever, but you you know what I mean. Yeah.

[00:23:54]>> 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.

[00:24:13]My family's riddled with kidney disease.

[00:24:16]My mom's been on the machine for 18 years.

[00:24:26]There she is.

[00:24:29]She doesn't look like the same person. I mean, if you ask anybody who knew her 10 years ago and if they saw her now, they wouldn't recognize her.

[00:24:35]The the change has been that dramatic.

[00:24:38]Hi.

[00:24:41]She's tired, and her body is broken down in many ways.

[00:24:46]>> [music] >> And dialysis has just crippled her.

[00:24:50]She's only 53.

[00:24:59]My brother started dialysis [music] 3 years ago, as well.

[00:25:04]My mom developed bone disease, her hair started falling out. Like, she just It's just been one thing after another for [music] the past 18 years.

[00:25:14]I just don't want to see myself go down the same path my mom has, where, you know, you just degenerate. Like, your your body just starts to fall apart after a while.

[00:25:24]If my kids could have a transplant, it would be a a new beginning.

[00:25:31]My daughter's been on dialysis for 6 years, and my son 3. So, if there's a kidney out there, give it to my kids before me.

[00:25:41]I really want them to I really want them that gift. I've got this this cool technology. It's the latest, you know?

[00:25:51]See, what I do is I uh in, out.

[00:25:55]So, you know, it's like a faucet.

[00:25:57]>> two lines there.

[00:25:59]>> basically.

[00:25:59]>> It's in his jugular, and that's what he lives with every day. Like, he can't have a shower. The benefits of having that, like you said, like you don't have to put needles in your arms every other day. You >> Just compare. You show them your your arm, and then we'll compare.

[00:26:14]Okay.

[00:26:16]This is what terrifies me. You want to see an old pro?

[00:26:20]This is 20 years.

[00:26:21]>> Look at this. This is the choice I had.

[00:26:24]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.

[00:26:29]>> too many times that every once in a while, it just bursts. That's what it exploded. Yeah, before Halloween.

[00:26:36]>> table.

[00:26:43]I've heard of the black market, where, you know, people are going [music] to try and source out kidneys from, you know, um in [music] you know, underdeveloped countries.

[00:26:54]Hello, everyone. All of you need kidneys, but don't have potential donors. If [music] I'm right that I have the exact solution for you.

[00:27:01]Yeah, I don't know what to make of stuff like [music] this.

[00:27:05]The black market idea scares me a little bit. There's people who've come back riddled with infections. [music] So, you hear stuff like that, and you just think, "Wow, that's not the route I want to take."

[00:27:16]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, there you The person who's sick is benefiting, and this person is getting compensation that might actually turn their life around, as well.

[00:27:33]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 altruistic, he still doesn't have to do that, you know?

[00:27:50]>> If he didn't need the money, do you think he would still do it?

[00:27:52]Maybe not. It sounds like he wouldn't, but the guy's getting 20 grand, but the guy's getting kidney. You know what I mean? And he knows the sickness is there.

[00:28:01]>> and they're all, you know, everybody's happy, but what happens when if that 20 grand doesn't work out? What's he going to do? Try and sell another part of his body? Well, hopefully not. If our system is failing us, this is the outcome, right? This This is the byproduct.

[00:28:15]>> Well, when something isn't freely available, a black market exists.

[00:28:19][music] >> [music] >> In Kosovo, the infamous Medicus clinic is deserted now.

[00:28:32]>> [music] >> Its doctors, donors, patients, and brokers scattered around the world.

[00:28:38]Getting witnesses back to Kosovo to testify is proving [music] a challenge for Jonathan Ratel.

[00:28:43]There's a lot of moving parts right now.

[00:28:45]There's a lot of different agencies and people involved.

[00:28:49]It's my opinion that the organized criminal group chose Kosovo for a particular reason.

[00:28:54]>> [music] >> Its claim of sovereignty is recognized by some states and not others.

[00:28:59]We can be seeking evidence in a foreign country that will not respond to us because they do not recognize Kosovo.

[00:29:05]That is a [music] massive difficulty.

[00:29:08]So far, Ratel has seven local doctors and clinicians secured for the trial.

[00:29:13]But Turkey refuses to extradite Dr. Yusuf Sonmez.

[00:29:17]And there's another key player Ratel [music] wants, the middleman who made the Medicus machine run smoothly.

[00:29:24]After all, someone had to organize blood tests and tissue matching.

[00:29:28]Someone had to book flights and take care of logistics, and hundreds of thousands of dollars had to cross oceans and change hands. [music] According to Ratel, Moshe Harel was that someone.

[00:29:40]He is the fixer, the person that arranges all of this, the business end of the trafficking conspiracy.

[00:29:49]He informed me right from the outset that [music] as soon as I complete the required medical tests, they have so many donors that they can do the operation within 1 [music] week or 2. And he at a point told me, "Well, you know, you were ready. We're waiting for you." And I said, "Well, what is this, guys? I mean, you have a football team of of donor?" He says, "Well, pretty close to it."

[00:30:13]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. [music] Since then, he has disappeared.

[00:30:26]Except on Facebook. And though he didn't [music] respond to messages, he did post that he is in an open relationship, and he likes restauranteurs.

[00:30:38]But for Raul Fain, Moshe was [music] the crucial link to a life-saving operation.

[00:30:44]Even in the black market, in addition [music] 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.

[00:30:57]Moshe informed me that there is this doctor by the name of uh Zaki Shapiro that is a quite quite a well-known nephrologist in Israel.

[00:31:07]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.

[00:31:21]>> [music] >> Dr. Zaki Shapiro had a very important role of doing the matching and checking all the blood tests and every making sure that, you know, which is quite probably equal responsibility to the doctor that that is doing the surgery.

[00:31:35]Jonathan Ratel has named Zaki Shapiro an unindicted co-conspirator in the Medicus case.

[00:31:42]Do you have a sense of what this person did? Absolutely.

[00:31:47]What?

[00:31:49]Well, as an unindicted co-conspirator, they're part of the organized criminal group involved in this.

[00:31:53]>> [music] >> And they're at the level or near the level of someone as in Harel.

[00:31:59]If that individual is beyond the reach of the prosecutor, the person cannot be indicted. You're powerless.

[00:32:06]The prosecutor can't reach them.

[00:32:10]Dr. Shapiro was like a father.

[00:32:14]And um he at all time tried to calm both of us.

[00:32:21]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 the surgery went out okay and there are no everything seems to be in place.

[00:32:33]Controversy has shadowed Professor Zaki Shapiro for decades. And he has declined all interviews in the past.

[00:32:41]>> [music] >> But now, he agrees to go on camera for the first time and break his public [music] silence.

[00:33:12]Dr. Shapiro is one of Israel's most distinguished transplant surgeons.

[00:33:17]In the early days, with ambiguous laws and a dire shortage of kidneys, few questions were asked about the source of his donors.

[00:33:51]When an ethics review board began to question his methods, [music] Shapiro 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.

[00:34:09]In 2007, the two physicians were arrested in Istanbul during one of their operations and [music] spent 3 months together in a Turkish prison before the charges against them were dropped.

[00:34:21]How many operations do you think you've done?

[00:34:42]So, 850 times you traveled to foreign locations to operate?

[00:34:55]Operating in clandestine locations pose some unique challenges.

[00:35:34]>> [snorts] >> And nothing happened. They were all fine.

[00:35:46]>> [cough] >> Doesn't it bother you that you your reputation may have suffered?

[00:36:21]The truth is that that organ came from someone, and that person was exploited.

[00:36:26]They were extremely vulnerable, and the harvesting of their organ is an outrageous act.

[00:37:17]5 hours from Manila is a province [music] where the kidney trade has cut a swath through the male population.

[00:37:25]So many in this region have sold their kidney, they have formed a small support group.

[00:37:48]>> [laughter] [laughter] [music] [music] >> Even in this destitute corner of the Philippines, no one claims to have been drugged, duped, or dragged into the operating room.

[00:39:34]They are, however, victims of a system that is unregulated and rife with the potential for exploitation.

[00:41:23]The thrill of a quick payoff extends across villages and through families.

[00:41:28]Like these three brothers.

[00:41:31]Noli used his windfall to buy a motorized skateboard. The only form of transportation in his village.

[00:41:38]The fares he charges, mere pennies a ride, sustain his family [music] of four.

[00:42:39]For all the men, the lure is simple.

[00:42:41]More cash than they could earn in a year or two of village labor.

[00:42:48]But Hector is one man for whom it all went wrong.

[00:42:52]He's been suffering crippling pains for months.

[00:43:07]>> [screaming] [snorts] >> 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.

[00:43:41]Based on the ultrasound findings, the left kidney has a mild renal disease, and this is a sign of a deteriorating left kidney.

[00:43:52]There is really a problem.

[00:43:55]He will be a candidate for dialysis.

[00:43:58]And he himself will be looking for a donor.

[00:44:03]Hector should never have been accepted as a donor.

[00:44:06]He likely had kidney disease long before he sold his organ on the black market.

[00:44:11]His remaining kidney is failing quickly.

[00:44:14]Probably, tragically, so is the one that he donated to a dying stranger.

[00:44:22]No one knows how many other horror stories could be told in China, in India, all across the developing world.

[00:44:29]Yet for all its dangers, the lure of using the body as a bankbook remains irresistible.

[00:44:41]It's now been almost eight years, and Mary Jo still hasn't made it to the top of the list.

[00:44:48]I don't know how she does it some days.

[00:44:50]Putting those needles in her arm for eight hours every other day, and then working and taking care of her family and you know, uh 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 uh she's getting tired. And uh I feel terrible about it. But I'm inspired by her. Like I used to be irritated cuz I was, you know, maybe a bit more immature and selfish. But now it's, you know, we've got a we've got a kid together and we've got a life that we built and you got to suck it up.

[00:45:28]I was told I was somewhere like halfway [music] up the list.

[00:45:32]Which surprised me a little bit because [music] when I started, they told me seven or eight years. Now they're telling me possibly 10 years.

[00:45:40]>> [music] >> So I don't know.

[00:45:50]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.

[00:45:57]Because we knew that I didn't have very long and nothing seemed to be happening here.

[00:46:06]But I said [music] at the time that I wasn't going to give up on alternate paths.

[00:46:15]I do not believe [music] that very many people recognize that they can do an altruistic donation to someone person.

[00:46:22]>> [music] >> There are a couple websites, in particular matchingdonors.com, that have altruistic donors on them.

[00:46:30]Matching donors has caused more [music] than 300 transplants in the last six years, and it's always possible that I might wind up being one of them.

[00:46:38]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 I think the number is pretty small.

[00:46:51]It doesn't seem like it's in the cards.

[00:46:55]Unfortunately, a large number of those potential donors are looking to donate [music] to somebody young with young children whose life they could save and they can be a hero. But I'm not going [music] to badger anybody. I will send one email to somebody and say, "Would you consider me as a recipient?"

[00:47:13]and explain who I am and what I am and so on.

[00:47:16]And I don't know why, you know, more people do not respond to me.

[00:47:22]Part of the problem may be that uh I come on too [music] strong. I don't know.

[00:47:29]It's a hit or miss proposition. But anything's worth a try and all avenues are worth pursuing.

[00:47:43]In Turkey, the infamous Dr. Sonmez is still at large.

[00:47:47]But surprisingly, [music] he does respond to his email.

[00:47:50]With a dinner invitation in Istanbul.

[00:47:53]No cameras, no crew.

[00:47:56]The director travels to Turkey [music] to meet the surgeon.

[00:47:59]She assumed the meeting would be clandestine, but is surprised to find that dinner includes [music] his parents, his wife, and young daughter.

[00:48:07]The next day, he phones the director and agrees to [music] an interview.

[00:48:11]Why?

[00:48:13]Because his mother trusts her.

[00:48:15]I think that >> [music] >> he has become a scapegoat.

[00:48:19]There is nobody he killed. Nobody.

[00:48:22]You see, he's a very good surgeon.

[00:48:24]Everybody accepts it. He he might look scary from outside, but he's quite soft inside.

[00:48:32]I think Yusuf is coming. No, no. Yusuf is coming. Uh yeah.

[00:48:36]>> [clears throat] >> All over all the world, in all kind of TV channels and the newspapers, uh so many talks about this organized crime, international trafficking in organs, and the So what? This is This is pushed by the media. This by the press.

[00:49:00]In every country.

[00:49:01]Uh and they are feeding each other.

[00:49:04]Well, uh I have read myself with big surprise in many newspapers Dr. Frankenstein, but never Dr. Frankenstein. Yes, I have read.

[00:49:12]Uh I guess one or two times Dr. Mengele I have seen.

[00:49:16]I'm not against, but I don't agree because I don't see any similarity.

[00:49:21]Dr. Yusuf Sonmez, >> [music] >> he's a very interesting individual in the sense that he's highly intelligent, sophisticated, and quite worldly.

[00:49:30]But I think it's quite clear that he is a significant international component to [music] organ trafficking around the world.

[00:49:38]From '97 until 2018, Turkey, for 10 years long, I was judged many times. I was accused, let's say around 10 different cases.

[00:49:49]And each time I was accused with the same points, illegal transplantation, illegal [music] transplantation. But at the end, in all of them I was acquitted.

[00:50:00]My criminal record was totally clean. I didn't [music] commit any crime.

[00:50:05]Yusuf Sonmez has outflanked the Turkish justice system six times.

[00:50:10]But if he ever leaves his homeland, Jonathan Ratel will be waiting.

[00:50:15]The Interpol red notice, an international arrest warrant, has trapped Dr. Sonmez in Turkey.

[00:50:21]The moment he leaves the country, he risks getting arrested. Well, this is sweet and you're wanted wanted. I would gather it's a little bit annoying.

[00:50:30]No. It's not annoying? No. Why? Look.

[00:50:34]Crimes against life and health, people smuggling, trafficking, illegal migration.

[00:50:38]>> Dr. Sonmez seems less disturbed about his fate than about his photo.

[00:50:42]Psychologically, to put my old pictures, look at these are old pictures, from '97.

[00:50:50]These are not reflecting me. I'm different. I'm I'm not the same person.

[00:50:54]Maybe it is the time to cancel this red notice.

[00:50:58]I just told him, "Please, Yusuf, we are we are in trouble, you see. We are very very sad about you. Please leave."

[00:51:08]Becoming a surgeon and working as a surgeon, you see.

[00:51:12]What he told me, do you know?

[00:51:14]"Are you going to say to to to tell me mother that I'm going to to be a grocer?"

[00:51:19]>> [laughter] >> I cannot do it because it's not my business. I [music] cannot do it.

[00:51:26]Yes. And so I be Only I can do one thing, I am a doctor. [music] While Dr. Sonmez blames the media for his notoriety, he recognizes that he has been operating at the margins of the law. Why did you go to Azerbaijan, to [music] Kosovo? You are begging for trouble.

[00:51:47]>> Okay. For let's make it simpler.

[00:51:51]About Kosovo and Azerbaijan, it's very simple. I'm surgeon. I have got offer first from Kosovo to make surgery [music] for the simple reason to earn money.

[00:52:02]You know, being human, everybody needs money. And I need to work.

[00:52:06]And I have got a good offer. Dr. Sonmez cannot understand why >> [music] >> there is any legal question about it.

[00:52:15]And the morality of what he is doing escapes [music] him.

[00:52:19]I think that he believes that he is providing a service to extremely desperate individuals. Anyone who has some brain and some reading capacity, I guess, can read and understand the law.

[00:52:32]According to this law, the doctor obligation is just to check that the donation is for altruistic reason.

[00:52:39]>> [music] >> If a donor comes from Moldova or Ukraine, Is it my Is it my problem? Is it ethical committee's problem? It's not my problem. I'm doing my surgery, that's it. And you have no idea that the donors [music] were getting paid.

[00:52:51]No, please. They were signing that there is no money matter. There is no selling.

[00:52:56]There is no buying. Only for altruistic reasons.

[00:53:00]So, my job was over to see these papers, that's all. I was not getting the consent [music] of the people.

[00:53:07]I need to see the papers.

[00:53:09]This Kosovo case, because it touched really all of parts of the world.

[00:53:15]Um it affected not just me, but my family.

[00:53:20]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 media. If, for example, in Yusuf's case, if the media said that he he is the boss of the mafia, people do believe that one.

[00:53:41]It is a case as gruesome as it is shocking. A surgeon and six other suspects in Kosovo were accused of running an international organ trafficking ring.

[00:53:49]>> Kosovo has become a haven in the illicit trade of human organs.

[00:53:53]>> At least seven suspects in Kosovo have been charged with persuading people to sell their organs.

[00:53:57]>> The victims were lured from other countries and had their kidneys stolen.

[00:54:01]>> The gang allegedly preyed on those living in extreme poverty. The indictment says an Ontario man, Ralph Fain, received a kidney from a Russian woman. The fact that my name was mentioned kind of makes me very uneasy as if I as if I know knowingly participated in the in in this particular scheme, which really, if I tell you 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 and so on, but how do you how do you counter that, you know? You have to go and say, "No, I know that it's the facts are different." The medical ethics of this are are clear to anybody involved in the profession. And you have to step over that line quite clearly.

[00:54:51]And only reason that someone would do that, in my opinion, is absolute pure and simple greed. That's what motivates us is the motive for obscene profits.

[00:55:02]You were doctors involved, a nephrologist and and surgeon and all these all these 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 but I don't think that was their primary their primary motive for doing this. It is suggested I was by one person that I'm getting for each transplant $100,000.

[00:55:24]So, until today I have performed more than two 2,400. So, if I multiply this two, I have an account like $250 million.

[00:55:34]It's huge money.

[00:55:35]>> [snorts] >> It's huge money. Really huge money.

[00:55:40]And so I must ask you the question.

[00:55:42]Am I looking like a person who has $250 million in in some way?

[00:55:47]No, you know my family and my parents and my life, so Well, we are not poor, but we don't look like $250 [music] million, right?

[00:55:58]The economics of the organ trade are a challenge to unravel.

[00:56:02]The compensation that donors receive for selling [music] a kidney varies widely.

[00:56:07]The poorer the country, the lower the price.

[00:56:10]In India, the payoff can be as low as $1,000.

[00:56:13]>> [music] >> In Egypt, it's 2,000. In Turkey, up to 10,000.

[00:56:18]The cost of [music] the operation might be 10 times higher, but many people get a piece of the action.

[00:56:24]What does everybody get? I really have no idea. What I can tell you is there are many hands in the pot.

[00:56:30]>> [music] >> 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 martial, I have a surgeon.

[00:56:39]We are here in a fully staffed clinic with two male nurses at all time for us.

[00:56:44]So, you know, what that's [music] up.

[00:56:50]Back in Manila, Eddie Boy's operation is finally scheduled.

[00:56:54]>> [music] >> The next day, Diane accompanies Eddie Boy to the hospital.

[00:57:33]A few hours after Eddie Boy is admitted, a member of the production team, rigged with a hidden camera and posing as a relative, will meet him in his room.

[00:57:43]The goal is to identify the recipient and see how much money changes hands.

[00:57:58]But several hours after leaving Eddie Boy off at the hospital, Diane calls and asks to meet.

[00:58:05]Surprisingly, she's with Eddie Boy.

[00:58:26]It's an unlikely story. Transplants are rarely canceled at the last minute.

[00:58:31]With a little investigation, we learn the truth. Uncomfortable with the cameras and the focus on Eddie Boy, Diane replaced him at the last minute with another one of her clients, a man who has just returned home with fresh [music] bandages and what should have been Eddie Boy's cash.

[00:58:51]>> [music] >> No country is immune to the trade in human organs. [music] My family thought I was nuts.

[00:59:08]At first, it was like, "You shouldn't do this. Why are you doing this? Why are you even thinking [music] about it?"

[00:59:14]In a suburb of Philadelphia, Jason Chamberlain sold his kidney on the internet.

[00:59:22]What are you doing? What are you doing, honey? I'm going to go on Craigslist.

[00:59:26]You're going to go on what?

[00:59:28]On 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.

[00:59:36]God bless you.

[00:59:37]I'm basically doing whatever I can to survive.

[00:59:42]In the course of doing like Google searches, I came across a gentleman who posted an ad in need of a kidney.

[00:59:50]I thought it was just somebody playing a game.

[00:59:53]So, I actually replied to it.

[00:59:55]>> [music] >> And I got a reply back. Now, I'm dead serious. I'm in desperate need.

[01:00:01]I asked him what kind of compensation I would receive. He offered me $20,000.

[01:00:06]So, after thinking [music] 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.

[01:00:21]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.

[01:00:33]There was, you know, plenty of trips back and forth to the hospital.

[01:00:37]Pre-testing, [music] lots of pre-testing.

[01:00:41]His antibodies in his blood was rejecting [music] just about everybody that was being tested. So, it was it was a long shot.

[01:00:48]It was down to [music] the point where I was the only match out of over 70 people.

[01:00:54]Just like Diane's impoverished clients in Manoa, >> [music] >> Jason was able to bluff his way through a pre-surgery interview.

[01:01:01]We never mentioned that it was a Craigslist ad.

[01:01:04]But, I know they had their suspicions.

[01:01:07]They were just [snorts] trying to trip me up to make sure that I was doing this on my free own free will and I wasn't being, you know, I you know, I wasn't selling the kidney.

[01:01:17]I don't feel exploited. And I don't feel that I exploited the recipient, either.

[01:01:22]I I feel that it was just something we both agreed on.

[01:01:26]You know, I I needed to live. I needed to survive. And so did he.

[01:01:31]So, that's why, you know, I'm sitting here living donor and he has a kidney that's functional.

[01:01:45]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.

[01:01:54]So, the act itself [music] is considered a good act. So, why not offer people incentives to do the right thing? What's wrong [music] with that? If donating a kidney was considered to be horrific, if cutting into my body to save a stranger [music] 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 [music] it altruistically. So, why not allow it for money?

[01:02:16]Robbie Berman is an activist advocating for a government-regulated system to compensate kidney donors.

[01:02:23]So, this is the this is the the script.

[01:02:25]Basically, you guys are going to be standing across the street >> [music] >> and you're going to 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.

[01:02:35]As soon as the fire starts going, I want everyone to start looking up.

[01:02:41]Help!

[01:02:42]Help!

[01:02:43]You know, it's clear to me that if you want to get a message across, [music] YouTube is the way to go. So, I want to make a video that will, in a fun way, get the message across.

[01:02:51]The kid represents [music] 7,000 Americans that are dying every year.

[01:02:54]>> Yeah, that's my boy. That's my son. Turn around and you say you'll give $1,000 [music] to anyone who will save my son.

[01:03:00]For $1,000, I'll risk my life. The guy in the black leather jacket, >> [music] >> uh he is the poor person who's being exploited.

[01:03:08]Sorry, I can't let you do it.

[01:03:10]Who are you? My name is Peter Paternalistic.

[01:03:14]Peter Paternalistic, my alter ego, is the establishment. It's the government.

[01:03:18]It's [music] the people who think they know better. Why won't you let me save the boy? Because your motives aren't pure. You're doing it for the $1,000.

[01:03:25]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 that $1,000 to sell your kidney.

[01:03:32]>> My god.

[01:03:34]Okay.

[01:03:34]>> [laughter] >> That was funny. That's good. Let's do that again.

[01:03:41]>> [music] >> The crux of the Medikus [music] case lies with the exploitation of the victims who were compelled by desperation to sell a body part.

[01:03:55]There is a propaganda machine as far as looking at it from only one viewpoint [music] that organs are stolen against people's wishes, but I can say that from my experience that [music] the donor seemed quite willingly to do the surgery.

[01:04:12]All of the donors have returned to their home countries. [music] Uh they're difficult to locate. We're trying to find these people and have them provide evidence.

[01:04:22]Many of them may not be cooperative.

[01:04:24]They may feel ashamed or betrayed or injured.

[01:04:29]>> [music] >> Raul Fain's donor holds the key to what really happened at Medikus.

[01:04:38]Among the documents seized when the Medikus clinic was raided is a grainy photocopy of her passport.

[01:04:44]>> [music] >> The alleged victim of this international organ trafficking ring is a woman named Anna from a country called Moldova.

[01:04:53]Raul's donor will be the final link in the anatomy of a black market operation.

[01:05:00]>> [music] >> Moldova, like Kosovo, is a fledgling republic overrun by criminal gangs.

[01:05:15]Once known for exporting wine, vegetables, and fruit, it's now known for exporting impoverished donors to the global organ trade.

[01:05:23]Here, >> [music] >> in a tiny flat, is the haunting face from the Medikus files.

[01:05:30]Raul's kidney donor, Anna Rusolenco, is 48 years old and lives alone.

[01:05:36]Her journey to the Medikus clinic began with an ad in a Russian language newspaper.

[01:05:43]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> They were dressed very careful, very appropriate.

[01:06:54]One had quite a few pieces of jewelry.

[01:07:09]They seemed to be smiling. They didn't they did not appear to be nervous.

[01:07:21]>> [music] [music] >> I was asked at time to to sign a statement that, you know, everything is done quite quite normally and that nobody has um forced anybody into doing any of this.

[01:09:14]And this is a walk that you take every day? Well, a month and a half ago, we were looking at options that were very good, but I said that I wasn't going to give up and my wife was pretty negative about matchingdonors.com and then I locked into Lori.

[01:09:32]I need a 16 oz We spent the whole last month texting each other to the point where we I filled up my text box at least three times.

[01:09:42]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 equally happy life, you know, and healthy and that's great. I just happened to lock into meeting her at the right time in the right place. I went on to matchingdonors.com.

[01:10:02]Um and Walter contacted me the first day.

[01:10:09]I think I'm just comfortable with him, you know, it's He says what he has to say, you know, he lays it all out there. It's not candy-coated and >> [laughter] >> and I'm used to that. That's where I'm from. I mean, it's like being at home.

[01:10:22]People have asked me, you know, why not a a younger child or woman or a younger man.

[01:10:28]I have a hard time with that.

[01:10:30]Um the value of his life is nothing less than a 6-year-old or a 4-year-old or, you know, [music] he's equally as important as the next person.

[01:10:45]Lori is giving me a gift.

[01:10:48]And I love her for it.

[01:10:51]>> [music] >> She is giving me back my life.

[01:10:55]That is a gift that can never [music] be repaid.

[01:11:02]>> [snorts] >> 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 you'll you'll say, well, maybe not.

[01:11:17]As much as this is for Walter, this is really for me, too.

[01:11:21]When I lost a very dear friend, I would have given anything to save her life.

[01:11:29]Okay. And um And of course you couldn't.

[01:11:35]I didn't have that opportunity.

[01:11:37]And [snorts] I'm so sorry.

[01:11:43]And if I can help one person live his life with his wife and his children and his grandchildren.

[01:11:52]>> Hope.

[01:11:53]Wow.

[01:11:55]That's >> [gasps] >> it's important to me in here.

[01:12:00]Oh, thank you so much for that.

[01:12:10]How's life been on dialysis? It sucks.

[01:12:12]It sucks, huh? Yeah. How's the transplant list doing?

[01:12:16]Part of the problem is that the way things stand now, there are separate lists for each of the regions and organ donation varies.

[01:12:25]Uh they're better in some parts of the province than they are in others and Toronto has has lagged behind. So I could have been on a shorter list all this time? You had you been referred there, yes.

[01:12:35]That's a little heartbreaking to hear.

[01:12:37]It is. It is, yeah. I've just learned that I've on the longest list in Ontario.

[01:12:43]So which is really somewhat discouraging [music] and upsetting because I live here and had I known, maybe we could have decided to live somewhere else.

[01:12:51]Like I don't know if we would have or not. It just Again, it's something I didn't know. I was ignorant to and, you know, you just wonder when it's going to happen.

[01:13:01]So I have no choice but to be positive and and deal with things as they come.

[01:13:09]I [music] do as much as I can, but I just I would love to feel good.

[01:13:13]I'm I'm tired. I start early in the morning and I'm I'm done by 9:00 [music] 10:00 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 2 years [music] doesn't make me happy.

[01:13:37]Got him scared. I'm scared. Why?

[01:13:40]Just surgery, you know.

[01:13:49]Altruistic donors like Lori Wood are one in a [music] million.

[01:13:54]Walter has won the lottery.

[01:14:14]>> [music] >> Hi, Troy.

[01:14:25]Hi, sweetie.

[01:14:27]It was really good just to see Walter this morning and he looked incredible and that's great, you know.

[01:14:32]It's a good feeling to make that kind of a difference in somebody.

[01:14:35]>> [music] >> You're not going to make lots of trouble. You'll be good. Behave yourself. I know I'm going to make lots of trouble.

[01:14:39]>> No, you're not.

[01:14:41]I owe Lori the rest of my life.

[01:14:45]My life expectancy as a statistic just went up.

[01:14:53]A lot.

[01:15:01]Brought together by fate, Anna Rusolenko and Raul Fain are now linked in a court of law as well.

[01:15:08]Jonathan Ratel's indictment of Dr. Sonmez and the rest of the Kosovo transplant network has brought [music] suspicion and detectives into their homes.

[01:15:28]>> [music] >> I had a visit from the RCMP which informed me that they are acting on behalf of Interpol.

[01:15:46]>> [music] >> They are always surprised at 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.

[01:16:08]I found this this this method a little [music] bit disconcerting.

[01:16:23]I had no choice but to give a testimony or I would have faced a jail sentence.

[01:16:28]They are circling me. Yes, they're It's like >> [music] >> strangulation the strangulation, right?

[01:16:34]This Even you feel that it's impossible to breathe free. So I know the solution. It's very simple.

[01:16:43]Who is the surgeon without complication?

[01:16:46]The one who is not doing surgery.

[01:16:49]So that's it. This is my solution. If I don't move my finger, it's soft.

[01:16:53]So I don't do transplantation and that's finished.

[01:17:06]>> [music] >> There was [music] a guy in Brooklyn here who got caught 6 months ago being a broker buying and buying something and he made money. He became wealthy.

[01:17:21]But he broke the law and he saved hundreds of lives. I follow a law.

[01:17:26]I observe the law and I've let hundreds of people die.

[01:17:29]Who's moral and who's immoral? I think I'm immoral [music] 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.

[01:17:44]Every year, thousands of illicit kidney transplants continue to take place in countries around the world.

[01:17:51]In all these cases, the recipients are deathly sick and the donors are poor and desperate.

[01:18:00]This is a thread that unites donors, doctors and patients in a web of fortune, fear and infamy.

[01:18:09]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.

[01:18:18]>> [music] >> In Turkey, Dr. Yusuf Sonmez, a virtuoso labeled a vulture, has relinquished his scalpel. [music] In Israel, Zaki Shapira, an unrepentant pioneer, has quietly retired.

[01:18:32]In Canada, Raul lives.

[01:18:35]In Moldova, Anna survives.

[01:18:39]And all around the world, the dance of desperation goes on.

[01:18:43]This case is the hallmark of a rank [music] exploitation of the human condition. These victims were identified, >> [music] >> selected I just hope that the donor had has has benefited from this at least as much as I did because I benefited a lot.

[01:19:11]Where's the love song [music] satisfied?

[01:19:17]>> [music] >> Too many people Oh, Everything turning the wrong way [music] round.

[01:19:30]And I don't know [music and singing] why love abandoned.

[01:19:37]But if we stop dreaming >> [music] >> now, Lord knows we'll never clear >> [music] >> the clouds.

[01:19:47]And you've been so busy lately [music and singing] that you haven't found the time to open up [music] your mind and watch the world spinning >> [music] >> gently out of time.

[01:20:12]Feel the sunshine [music] on your face.

[01:20:18]Sitting complete in love now.

[01:20:22]Gone are the future. [music] We're out in space.

[01:20:29]And you've been so [music] busy lately [singing] that you haven't found the time to open up your mind and watch the world spinning gently [music] out of time.

[01:21:09]>> [music] >> And you've been so [music] busy lately that you haven't found the time to open up your mind and watch the [music] world spinning gently out of time. [music] Tell me I'm not dreaming.

[01:21:40]But are we out of time?

[01:21:44]We're out of time.

[01:21:47]>> [music] >> Out of time.

[01:21:51]Out of time.

[01:21:53]>> [music] >> Out of time.

[01:21:58]Out of time.

[01:22:00]>> [music]