The Other Side of Honor: Gender, Class, and Organ Trade

• In Event: 390 - Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Race, Gender, Class and Health Part I

Abstract

Exploitation of people for the purpose of illicit trade in human organs has emerged as a high-profit enterprise. Drawing upon ethnographic and archival data from Pakistan, this paper delves into the gendered/classed phenomenon of organ trafficking. We argue that the theoretical focus on women in discussions of gendered sex trafficking, and a separate discussion on labor trafficking contribute to the relative invisibility of organ trafficking which mostly targets poor men. Moreover, the gendered cultural notion of honor associated with masculinity contributes significantly to the vulnerabilities of the men to become potential sellers of organs. We argue that, as sociologists, we have to shift our focus from the organs to the people whose organs are harvested and trafficked in order to develop a framework that views different forms of trafficking as a continuum.

Authors

• Farhan Navid Yousaf, University of Connecticut

• Bandana Purkayastha, University of Connecticut