Trafficking in Human Organs in Poland - Legal and Criminological Aspects

• In Event: Roundtable: Trafficking

Abstract

The paper is of empirical and dogmatic character. It presents Polish legal regulations on trafficking in human organs stipulated in the Act of 1 July 2005 on recovery, storage and transplantation of cells, tissues and organs. Trafficking in human organs is a crime punishable by a custodial sentence from 6 months to 5 years, and if a perpetrator made the crime a fixed income source, he or she is liable to a penalty of imprisonment from 1 year to 10 years. The empirical part presents results of opinion pools, including victimization survey conducted among more than a thousand Polish citizens over 15 years of age. Only 1-2% of respondents declared that they themselves, or someone close to them, were victims of organs trafficking. This result, however, is tantamount to a probable error. The paper also discusses why trafficking in human organs is not present in Poland. It is, mainly, a result of a very well organized transplant system with a coordination center called Poltransplat. The institution supervises organ allocation and no organ can be transplanted without Poltransplant’s participation in the decision-making. Other reasons are related to specificity of the organ transplantation procedure.

Authors

• Emil Walenty Plywaczewski, University of Bialystok, Faculty of Law

• Ewa Monika Guzik-Makaruk, University of Bialystok, Faculty of Law