Organ trade cuts both ways
Documentary filmmaker investigates trafficking, only to find himself questioning his beliefs
Should people be allowed to sell their organs?
That question lingers in Tales from the Organ Trade, a documentary by Toronto’s multiple award-winning filmmaker Ric Bienstock, making its North American premiere at Hot Docs, April 28, 29 and May 2.
The film won Best Sign of the Times Doc Award from New Zealand’s docu- mentary festival, where it had its world premiere last week.
Narrated by David Cronenberg, it’s an unflinching look at international organ trafficking, capturing, for the first time, the point of view of all participants in one operation.
Kidney disease is skyrocketing and transplant is the only way to survive for hundreds of thousands of people. With the desperately poor willing, and opportunistic surgeons able, there’s little hope of containing the spread, Bienstock says.
“The desperation to live is such a profound thing,” she says. “They want to believe they’re helping the donor. They have to rationalize, because they are not evil people.”
Globally it’s illegal to buy human organs, a position Bienstock agreed with at first.
“I expected it to be a very black and white story when I set out,” she says. “Then I realized there was a lot of moral ambiguity.”
“It was a weird scene for me when I met dozens and dozens of people who sold their kidneys.” RIC BIENSTOCK FILMMAKER
The film focuses on a trafficking ring run out of a Kosovo clinic, involving a Turkish surgeon, an Israeli facilitator and a Canadian prosecutor — and a Toronto man who purchases a kidney from a woman in Moldova. Bienstock flew back and forth to Asia and Europe over four years, interviewing everyone involved, plus many others. Most disquieting is the footage from the Philippines, where donating a kidney is almost a rite of passage for young men. Viewers may find themselves actually hoping one wannabe donor finds a buyer — a young man trying to lift his family out of poverty. Another young donor gets sick and discovers he has kidney disease, after it’s too late for him and the unknown recipient. “There is coercion, organ harvesting and abuse. Almost without exception they get ripped off,” Bienstock says. “It was a weird scene for me when I met dozens and dozens of people who sold their kidneys.” Bienstock confesses to feeling sadness, not relief, for the man whose kidney is rejected due to the film crew’s presence. “He really wanted to buy that house in the country and he’ll never be able to,” she says. The Philippine men, primarily labourers, also have scars that take months to heal, and no follow-up health care.
“That is why (some) are arguing for regulation,” Bienstock says. “It should be done properly. People who donate should be at the peak of their health.”
Toronto resident Mary Jo Vradis considers purchasing a kidney overseas in the film, then decides against it. “I wasn’t comfortable with the idea, because I knew how I’d be getting it,” she said in a phone interview. “Not only are you dependent on a complete foreign medical service, you’re taking a foreign kidney from somebody you don’t know. It’s a scary prospect.”
After waiting nine years on dialysis, Vradis received a kidney at St. Michael’s Hospital in 2010 from a deceased donor.
But it’s a chance Raoul Fain, another Toronto resident, took. Although his transplant was a success, he faced public backlash when he was called to testify against the surgeon, dubbed “Dr. Frankenstein” by the media. Fain died eight months ago of unrelated health issues.
Some donors are content with their experience, Bienstock notes. She meets Fain’s donor in Moldova, a woman who shows only concern for her recipient and anger that the story became public.
“People are finding their way to these illegal operations when they are desperate enough,” Bienstock says.
“We need to find a solution and we need to be open to think uncomfortable thoughts.”