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From: mhollowa@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Michael Holloway)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Organ trafficing ul,USIA article
Date: 20 May 1994 08:45:45 -0600

United States Information Agency
Todd Leventhal tleventh@usia.gov
May 1994

THE "BABY PARTS" MYTH: THE ANATOMY OF A RUMOR

During the past seven years, a totally unfounded, horrifying rumor has swept the world press. The ghastly -- and totally untrue -- charge is that Americans, or sometimes Europeans, Canadians, or Israelis, are adopting or kidnapping babies from Latin America or other locations, and butchering them in order to use their body parts for organ transplants. This gruesome story has been reported hundreds of times by newspapers, radio, and television stations throughout the world.

The rumor recently turned deadly in Guatemala. On March 29, 1994, a visiting American, June Weinstock, was attacked by a mob who accused her of abducting a Guatemalan boy. Weinstock suffered multiple broken arms, internal injuries, and severe head injuries. A month after the assault, she remained hospitalized in a coma; the long-term damage she may have suffered remained unclear.

The Mythical Origins of the Rumor

The "baby parts" probably arose spontaneously as an "urban legend," a false but widely believed form of modern folklore. There are many such widely repeated but totally unsubstantiated stories. For example, when microwave ovens began to be widely used, the story began to circulate about a person who had tried to dry their wet dog in a microwave oven, only to have it explode.

In the same way that fears about microwave technology led to this unfounded rumor, recent dramatic advances in organ transplantation have contributed to the "baby parts" myth. All of us may someday benefit from the gift of life that organ transplantation can provide. But the process also stirs powerful, primal anxieties. This was illustrated by the fictional 1978 American movie "Coma," in which some people were kept in comas so that others could "harvest" their organs. This irrational but very real fear is at the root of the "baby parts" rumor.

Experts on popular myths state that the "baby parts" story is a modern adaptation of a centuries-old tale. French folklorist Veronique Campion-Vincent has written:

     The baby-parts story is a new -- updated and
     technologized -- version of an immemorial fable.  The
     core of the fable is that a group's children are being
     kidnapped and murdered by evil outsiders.
 
     Accusations of such kidnappings and ritual murder were
     made against Christians in ancient Rome [and against]
     Jews throughout antiquity, the Middle Ages, and up to
     modern times....  Child abductions in 18th century France
     were explained by ailing nobility who needed them for
     medical reasons: the leprous King needed blood baths, or
     a mutiliated Prince needed a new arm which incompetent
     surgeons were trying each day to graft from a new
     kidnapped child.

The Rumor Breaks Into the World Press

In the modern version of this legend, individuals have reported hearing the "baby parts" rumor as far back as the mid 1980s, although it did not appear in the world press until January 1987, when Leonardo Villeda Bermudez, the former Secretary General of the Honduran Committee for Social Welfare, mentioned the rumor during an interview in a way that made it appear as if it was true. Mr. Villeda immediately issued a clarification stating that he had merely heard unconfirmed rumors of such activities. All top Honduran officials, including the President's wife, emphasized that there was no evidence for such allegations, but by this time the rumor had been reported by a wire service and it began to circulate throughout the media worldwide, appearing in Guatemala the next month and soon afterwards in Europe.

Soviet and Other Disinformation

In April 1987, the Soviet disinformation apparatus began a conscious effort to spread and embellish this unfounded rumor. On April 5, 1987, Pravda carried the 3-month old Honduran story, citing the original allegations without mentioning subsequent press accounts dismissing the story. TASS replayed the story, and during 1987 and 1988 it appeared many times in the Soviet media and in pro-Soviet media worldwide.

One group that continues to be extremely active in spreading "baby parts" disinformation is the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), which was identified decades ago as a Soviet-controlled front group. The IADL assistant representative in Geneva, Renee Bridel, pursued this theme in concert with the Soviet disinformation apparatus in 1988 and since then apparently on her own. She has conducted an extremely vigorous one-person disinformation campaign on this issue, using her position in IADL to raise the "baby parts" canard in various fora at the United Nations in Geneva and with numerous non-governmental organizations.

Her influence in spreading this rumor has been substantial.

The Cubans also continue to press the story vigorously, and have repeatedly tried to introduce resolutions on this issue in U.N. human rights meetings.

Misinformation: The Rumor Feeds on Itself

In addition to the existence of deliberate disinformation, the "baby parts" rumor has frequently been spread by well-meaning individuals who either believe that the rumor is true or worry that it may be. Tragically, the publicity these usually well-intentioned individuals have given the rumor by deploring a non-existent crime has inadvertently contributed to its credibility and the resultant damage it has done. The result is that after more than seven years of misinformation and disinformation, the "baby parts" rumor is now widely believed around the world, despite the fact that no government, non-governmental organization, intergovernmental body, or investigative journalist has ever produced any credible evidence to support it. At this point, the rumor has attained such currency around the world that it appears certain to continue on the strength of its own momentum for years to come.

The Impossibility of Clandestine Organ Transplants in the United States

Health and transplant officials in the United States have stated emphatically that it would be impossible for such clandestine organ trafficking to occur in the United States.

The U.S. National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 made it a crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment, to sell or purchase human organs for transplant in the United States. It also mandated that a national network for identifying, allocating, and distributing organs be created, and that this organization (known as the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS) trace all organs procured and transplanted in the country.

All organ donation in the United States is voluntary. A person wishing to donate organs upon his or her death must sign an organ donor card, giving permission for their organs to be used for transplantation. Even if this card has been signed, U.S. transplant surgeons do not remove organs from a deceased person for transplantation unless the deceased's next-of-kin have been consulted and have given permission for this to occur.

Once an organ donor has been identified, a series of sophisticated medical procedures must be administered in order to determine the suitability of various organs for transplantation and to permit matches with potential recipients. Testing consists of antigen and HLA tissue matching to ensure donor organ compatibility; blood typing; testing for communicable diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS; and donor-recipient matching for height, weight, and age. Each of these tests are essential to ensure the best immunological match possible to ensure prolonged viability of the donated organ and patient survival.

After these tests are completed, the information is relayed to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which maintains lists of people on waiting lists for kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, pancreases, and other organs. Priority on these waiting lists is determined by complex formulas based on length of time on the waiting list, likelihood of survival without a transplant, and other factors. These formulas were developed by medical experts and ethicists in order to meet the objectives of both fairness and the greatest possible medical utility. UNOS determines the best matches for different organs and arranges transplantations for various recipients. Additionally, UNOS carefully monitors each transplant procedure, confirming that a transplant has occurred, and gathering detailed medical information about the donor organ and the transplant recipient. This information is independently confirmed at least four times by different individuals specially trained in auditing transplant procedures.

After the organs are extracted from the donor, an extremely delicate procedure that involves a transplant surgeon and support staff including an anesthesiologist, attending surgeons, and operating room nurses, the organs are transported as rapidly as possible by helicopter or airplane to the hospitals where the transplants will occur. During this process, the organs must be transported utilizing standardized packaging materials approved by UNOS. Each organ must be properly stored, labeled, and packaged before being accepted by the transplant recipient's team of physicians. Proper insulation and temperature-controlled packaging must be used in order to protect the organ from deterioration or damage during shipping.

These procedures must be accomplished extremely rapidly because the time that organs can survive outside the body is severely limited. Hearts must be transplanted within 5 hours, livers within 24 hours, pancreases within 6 to 12 hours, and lungs within 5 hours. Kidneys can survive the longest, but most surgeons will not transplant a kidney that was removed more than 48 hours ago.

The transplanatation process does not end with the conclusion of the transplant operation, or even with discharge from the hospital.

Careful monitoring and care is needed for the rest of the transplant recipient's life. Highly trained transplant physicians -- different from transplant surgeons -- must continue to closely follow, medicate, and treat the transplant recipient if the patient is to survive.

The strict safeguards surrounding the transplant process make it impossible for organs of unknown origin to enter into the U.S. transplant system, as would be the case if a child were allegedly killed overseas for a transplant in the United States. In order for the transplant to have a reasonable chance of success, the donor's cause of death must be known. Organs obtained from uncertain or unknown sources would be rejected as unsuitable on medical grounds alone.

In addition, the daunting technical requirements of the transplant process make it impossible that transplants could occur clandestinely, as the "baby parts" rumor alleges. Transplant surgeons and physicians, highly trained professionals who are handsomely compensated for their expertise, would have no incentive, financial or otherwise, to engage in clandestine, illegal transplantations. On the contrary, they would have every incentive to not participate in such activities. If such illegal activities were detected -- and they surely would be given the large number of people involved, the multiple safeguards in the system, and the abhorrent nature of the alleged activities -- this would mean the effective end of the surgeon or physician's career, with catastrophic financial and personal implications.

Nor could such highly complex operations occur at hidden, makeshift facilities. All transplant procedures are highly technical, requiring the expertise and skills of numerous medical professionals. For a heart transplant to occur, the patient must be placed on circulatory and respiratory bypass equipment during the entire length of the transplant procedure and constantly monitored by a certified pulmonary technologist. During a liver transplant, bleeding is extensive because the liver produces the substance that causes blood to coagulate, and a patient may need numerous blood transfusions. Kidney transplants must be performed by surgeons who have received at least five years of specialized training.

Thus, even if it were possible -- which it is not -- to assemble a team of highly trained medical professionals willing to take the enormous personal risks that would be involved in performing a transplant operation clandestinely, it would be impossible to arrange such a procedure for purely technical reasons alone because the technical resources required could not be assembled outside of major medical centers.

Even if one assumed the impossible, and postulated that such an event could take place and be kept secret by the dozens of knowing participants, it would soon be detected.

As stated above, the transplant process does not end with the transplant operation. Nor does it begin there. As soon as a person reaches a certain stage in degenerative organ disease, he or she is placed on the national waiting list for that organ maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing. If an individual suddenly disappears from a waiting list, UNOS is obligated to know why. There are only two ways in which individuals can be removed from the waiting lists: either because they have died or because they have had an organ transplantation operation. A person cannot suddenly disappear from the waiting list, have a clandestine, unapproved organ transplantation, and then reappear with a request to receive follow-on transplant care. No transplant physician would treat a person without knowing all the circumstances of their progressive organ disease, the details of the operation, including the identity and health records of the donor of the organ, and a great deal of other information that would not be available if the transplant operation were performed clandestinely.

In sum, organ transplantation is such a immensely complicated, highly technical, lengthy, heavily regulated, and carefully monitored process, involving so many highly trained professional personnel, that "baby parts" trafficking is, quite simply, an impossibility in the United States.

Repeated Investigations Find No Evidence for the Rumor

In early 1987, when the "baby parts" rumor first appeared, representatives of the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service all investigated their records and stated that they had no evidence that would indicate alleged organ trafficking.

On July 23, 1987, in response to a European Parliament resolution asking for an investigation of such charges, the European Community Commission stated that it "does not know of any transplant operations performed in Europe for which the organs of Latin American children have been used."

On October 7, 1987, the Geneva-based non-governmental organization Defense for Children, International (DCI) stated, "In recent months, DCI has tried to have these reports verified by its representatives in Central America. So far, these investigations have failed to find any evidence to substantiate the reports."

On January 29, 1988, after these charges had resurfaced again in Guatemala, the Director of the Treasury Police, Mr. Oscar Augusto Diaz Urquizu, stated: "The institution which I direct has no proof, evidence or indication that Guatemalan children are being sent to the United States, or to any other country, to be dismembered and used as organ donors."

In a July 11, 1988 report, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar warned that reports of such activities issued by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers were "possibly fictitious," adding that there has been no "corroboration" for them.

On August 23, 1988, Gene Pierce, Executive Director of the United Network for Organ Sharing, stated that, "since the establishment of the Scientific Registry on October 1, 1987, UNOS has kept very detailed records on organ donors. There has been no documentation of any Latin American children under the age of 5 becoming donors in the United States."

On August 25, 1988, Linda Sheaffer, Director of the Divison of Organ Transplantation at the U.S. Public Health Service, stated that such illegal transplants would be "not only impractical but impossible." She pointed out that "Every time an organ transplant takes place, there are anywhere from 5 to 20 people in the operating room," some organ transplants "take up to 14 hours, none of the procedures could occur without the complete cooperation and knowledge of the hospital staff," and "any such large scale operation would not be kept secret."

On September 23, 1988, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights released a "Mission Report" on their "Investigation on Possible Trafficking in Infant Organs." It stated, "we have not been able to find a single piece of evidence indicating that such a trafficking operation is really occurring."

On September 26, 1988, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that "based on a review of all information available to the FBI, these charges are completely unfounded."

On October 3, 1988, R.C. Steiner, chief of the U.S. National Central Bureau, which represents the United States in the international criminal investigative organization Interpol, said that its records "do not reflect any requests for criminal investigative assistance from either the police in the United States or the police of any foreign country concerning this matter."

On October 8, 1988, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Schifter stated that "My government has made an exhaustive investigation of the charges and rumors related to this matter and both the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have concluded that they are totally groundless."

On November 18, 1988, Guatemala's Diario de Centro America reported that Guatemalan president Cerezo had stated: "The Guatemalan government has made serious and thorough investigations on the trafficking of babies and it has been concluded that the rumors on the 'butchering' of babies are false."

On June 6, 1989, Assistant Secretary for Health James Mason and Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a lengthy letter in which they pointed out that "the technical and medical aspects of organ transplantation make it impossible to obtain and transplant organs secretly." They stated, "The requirements of the process, including numerous highly trained professional personnel and sophisticated equipment, assure that any such activity would be detected and exposed," stressing that "removals of organs is a complex surgical procedure, performed only in hospitals, and specialized technical arrangements are needed to preserve the organs." Mason and Koop went on to point out, "Organ transplant procedures are also highly complex and must be performed in the highest level surgical facilities, most often in large hospitals affiliated with schools for the education of physicians." "Because of the nature of the technology involved," they concluded, "these activities could not be conducted in secret or makeshift facilities."

On February 7, 1991, Eduardo Mestre Sarmiento, the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations in Geneva, sent a letter to Mr. Jan Martenson, U.N. Under-Secretary General, in which he stated that the office of the Attorney General of Colombia had launched an "exhaustive" investigation of charges made by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers that children's organs from Colombia were being sold. Mr. Mestre stated that the investigation had found that the claims made by IADL were "completely unsubstantiated," adding that "the newspapers referred to as having published the news item never had knowledge of these acts." Mr. Mestre stated that "the falsity of the accusations and the use of unfounded evidence" led him to request that the Under-Secretary General "take the necessary measures to ensure that this type of action by certain non-governmental organizations does not recur in the future."

On April 19, 1993, after Honduran Congresswoman Rosario Godoy de Osejo made accusations that "baby parts" trafficking was occurring in Honduras, the President of the Honduran Supreme Court, Orlando Lozano Martinez, stated: "These allegations have been coming forward for three years and we have not been able to prove anything nor find merit in them through investigation." On April 21, Honduran Attorney General Leonardo Matute Murillo stated that his office had investigated organ trafficking charges for more than one year and found nothing to support them. The spokesman for the Honduran police also stated that the police had investigated organ trafficking allegations allegations and found them to be completely false.

On June 7, 1993, Mexico's El Financiero newspaper quoted Pablo Chapa, the director of complaints at Mexico City's attorney general's office, as stating, "I have not seen a single case where a person has been kidnapped and has later appeared with scars where his organs were taken, or his eyes were taken away. If these famous clandestine hospitals existed, we would have found out about them immediately." Dr. Arturo Dib Kuri, director of Mexico's National Registry of Transplants, stated, "I compare the rumor of stolen children whose organs are sold for transplant to a story saying that several thieves stole three [space] ships from Cape Canaveral to go to the moon."

The Rumor's Adverse Impacts

The false "baby parts" rumor has done tremendous damage in a number of different ways.

Most dramatically, it led to attacks on Americans and others in Guatemala during March 1994. On March 8, a mob in a Guatemalan town burned the police station in which an American wrongly suspected of child kidnapping had been held. The mob resisted the efforts of several hundred riot police and was not quieted until army troops and armored vehicles arrived to restore order. On March 29, an American tourist, June Weinstock, was savagely beaten by a mob who accused her of abducting a Guatemalan child. A mob surrounded the building where Weinstock was being protected by local authorities, broke in, and dragged her out after a five-hour siege. Weinstock was pelted with rocks and beaten with pieces of firewood, suffering multiple broken bones, internal injuries, and severe head injuries before the local police chief told the crowd that she was dead, causing them to disperse. At the time of this writing, she remains in a coma and any permanent damage that she may have suffered is unclear.

In addition to the assaults on Americans, the Guatemalan media have reported numerous attempted lynchings by angry mobs who believe that "strangers" are allegedly stealing their children. A Swiss volcanologist, a Salvadoran family visiting relatives, foreign assistance workers, backpackers, and Guatemalan citizens have all reportedly suffered such attacks.

The hysteria generated by this rumor has had an adverse impact on intercountry adoptions in a number of countries, according to adoption groups. In May 1991, the Turkish government announced that it was suspending intercountry adoptions because of the rumor.

Adoptions have also been suspended or hindered in Honduras, Guatemala, and many other countries. As a result, some children who might have found loving homes remain in orphanages.

The rumor has also led to groundless, but widespread fears among parents in Latin America and elsewhere who believe that their child might be kidnapped for the purpose of organ transplantation.

Finally, the rumor may also lead to an indirect but real loss of life. Voluntary organ donation is a very altruistic activity, and one that can be adversely affected by any perception of impropriety or illicit behavior. In the United States, the waiting lists for various organs exceed donor supply and as a result people die every day because of the lack of sufficient donor organs. To the extent the rumor is believed, it could very well decrease voluntary organ donation, and thereby cost lives.

1993: The Rumor is Given Credence in Television Documentaries

In November 1993, two hour-long television documentaries, one British/Canadian and the other French, gave credence to the "baby parts" rumor. Both films suffered from what appear to be serious gaps in reportage.

The British/Canadian film, "The Body Parts Business" gave credence to the rumor when it interviewed an eight-year old Honduran child, Charlie Alvarado, who claimed he was kidnapped by people who said they intended to sell his organs. Alvarado stated that he escaped after four days of captivity.

What the film did not mention was that Alvarado identified two persons, a German and a Swiss volunteer who worked at local children's homes, as his alleged kidnappers. Both were arrested and held for six days while the case was investigated. After the investigation, the judge dismissed the case as a fabrication. The boy could not remember the day on which he had allegedly been kidnapped, and had no bruises from the ropes with which he claimed he had been tied.

The British/Canadian film also featured an interview with the family of Pedro Reggi, who had been a patient at the Montes de Oca mental institution in Argentina. In the film, it is alleged that Reggi's corneas were removed at the institution and that he was left to die.

On April 10, 1994, the Spanish newspaper ABC reported:

     A few months later, the brother of the victim had to come
     forward because of the rumors to explain that what his
     brother had suffered was a "viral infection" that had
     left him practically blind, a diagnosis that was
     confirmed by a well-known opthamologist.

The French program, "Organ Thieves" also gave credence to the "baby parts" rumor and suggested that clandestine organ trafficking may be occurring in the United States. The program's examination of the situation the United States, however, included no interviews with any transplant physicians or surgeons or anyone knowledgeable about the requirements of organ transplantation. The only person it included was a professor of women's studies who believed that clandestine organ trafficking might be occurring, but had no evidence.

The French film concluded with a dramatic sequence in which a mother in Colombia claimed that after she took her young son to a hospital for diarrhea, he emerged blind because his corneas had been stolen. The blind boy was shown on the pages of Life magazine in October 1993, playing a flute.

On February 4, 1994, the Colombian government's Office of Human Rights issued a report stating that the child in question had gone blind due to disease. It stated that when he had been examined at a Colombian hospital in February 1983, at five months of age, he was found to be suffering from multiple illnesses and his prognosis was for a total loss of vision. The report states that child was not treated at the hospital but by a herbal therapist. It also states that the French journalist who publicized the "cornea-theft" story paid the child's mother thousands of dollars for this version of events. The report was signed by Dr. Alejandro Pinzon Rincon, Ombudsman for Health and Social Security.

Despite what appear to be serious flaws in reportage in both the British/Canadian and French programs, it is not implausible that some tissue trafficking abuses have occurred in countries where safeguards are not as extensive as in the United States. Corneas certainly could have been taken from cadavers without permission and in a few extreme cases patients in institutions may well have received negligent medical treatment with such illicit purposes in mind. In addition, it is an established fact that in some countries adults have been known to sell a kidney for profit, often to visiting foreigners.

These ethical abuses, however, are vastly different from and should not be confused with the totally false "baby parts" rumor. One of the most vexing problems of both the British/Canadian and French films is that they do not make careful distinctions between what has been established as fact, what may or may not be true, and what is totally inconceivable. Instead of contrasting myth and reality, the two programs often confuse the two, thereby adding to the credibility of the false "baby parts" myth.

Prestigious International Organizations Examine the Rumor

In addition to the media attention generated by the British/Canadian and French programs, both the European Parliament and United Nations have issued reports that give credence to the "baby parts" rumor.

On February 25, 1993, the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Consumer Protection issued a report on prohibiting trade in transplant organs. The report made many valuable suggestions but also included the unsubstantiated claim that "there is evidence that fetuses, children, and adults in some developing countries have been mutilated and others murdered with the aim of obtaining transplant organs for export to rich countries." The report, drafted by the distinguished French oncologist and European member of parliament Leon Schwartzenberg, stated that "to deny the existence of such trafficking is comparable to denying the existence of the ovens and gas chambers during the last war."

On September 14, 1993, The European Parliament adopted a resolution on prohibiting trade in transplant organs based on this report. In subsequent days, Dr. Schwartzenberg revealed that the source for his information on the alleged murders and mutilations in developing countries for the purpose of organ transplantation had been an article in the August 1992 issue of Le Monde Diplomatique. This article was written by French communist Maite Pinero, who, since April 1987, has written numerous articles that consistently give credence to such allegations, even long after they have been repudiated or discredited. IADL representative Renee Bridel has also stated that she has spoken with Dr. Schwartzenberg on this subject. In this way, erroneous disinformation and misinformation can unwittingly be endorsed by prestigious individuals and organizations.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Vitit Muntarbhorn, has also given attention to this issue in several of his reports, citing sources such as the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and Le Monde Diplomatique. In August 1992, the Special Rapporteur was specifically requested by the U.N. Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery's Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to "pay increased attention to issues relating to trafficking in children, such as organ transplantation...." Perhaps not entirely by coincidence, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers has been very active in the activities of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

Conclusion

In sum, as a result of both deliberate disinformation and unintentional misinformation, the totally unfounded "baby parts" rumor has now reached the level of accepted fact and conventional wisdom in large parts of the world. It has generated hysteria in Central American countries, led to brutal, unprovoked attacks on Americans and others, disrupted the lives of numerous prospective adoptive parents and the children they wished to adopt, created enormous, unfounded anxieties among parents in Latin America and elsewhere, and may cause premature deaths if it leads to a decrease in voluntary organ donation.

This sensationalistic rumor springs from deep, irrational, but very powerful anxieties stirred by advances in the life-saving process of organ transplantation. These fears have been fanned by some who have cynically advanced this rumor for political purposes. It has also been propagated by others who genuinely believe it. As a result of this cycle of events, the "baby parts" rumor has now attained such widespread currency that it continues to feed on itself and, tragically, is widely believed despite numerous corrective statements, authoritative statements pointing to the impossibility of such practices occurring, and the fact that no government, non-profit organization, intergovernmental organization, or investigative journalist has ever produced any credible evidence to support the charges.