Organ theft
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Organ theft is the practice of stealing people's organs via surgery while they are under the influence of drugs, or once the person is dead, when the organs can be illicitly removed and then used for further purposes such as transplants or sold on the black market. The practice is occasionally advanced as a theory into mysterious disappearances or murders, and is then advanced by sensationalist news reports, followed by word-of-mouth promotion as an urban legend. Its semicredible basis, in fact, is the extreme difficulty with which organs can be preserved postmortem (usually requiring a braindead but still functionally alive patient), and the long waiting lists for available organs. There has never been sufficient evidence, however, to suggest that the practice has ever occurred on an organized basis. This has not prevented its repeated depiction in horror movies and fiction.
See also
- Charlie the Unicorn, a 2005 short viral video
- Coma, 1977 novel by Robin Cook
- Coma, 1978 film, based on the aforementioned novel
- Death Warrant, 1990 film, where a murder mystery involves organ theft where healthy prison inmates are murdered for healthy organs
- Fleisch, a 1979 German made-for-television film in which a newly married man is abducted by organ traffickers in the American Southwest
- Organ procurement
- Organ harvesting
- Pound of Flesh, a 2015 film in which a former commando falls prey to organ thieves
- Turistas, a 2006 American horror film, in which the main characters who are tourists are abducted in the Brazilian countryside for purposes of organ theft
- Snakehead, a 2007 Alex Rider novel in which the title character is kidnapped and sent to a facility for organ theft in the South East Asian jungle
