Misinformation

Is the U.S. Harvesting Organs from Iraqis?

Allegations from a Saudi newspaper proved incorrect
A disinformation allegation in the December 18, 2004, issue of Saudi Arabia's Al-Watan newspaper falsely claimed that U.S. forces in Iraq are harvesting organs from dead or wounded Iraqis for sale in the United States. The sensationalistic nature of the fictitious allegations, in an article by Brussels-based reporter Fikriyyah Ahmad, caused them to be repeated in other media.

False rumors that Americans and others engage in adoption for organ trafficking first appeared in January of 1987, in Honduras. This rumor has been repeatedly investigated since then, and no evidence has ever been found to support it.

The current story appears to be a variation on this old theme, falsely accusing U.S. physicians of accompanying troops in Iraq to harvest organs for sale in the United States.

The sale or purchase of organs for transplant has been illegal in the United States since 1984, when the National Organ Transplant Act was passed. Joel Newman of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the U.S. organization that matches organ donors to recipients, stated on December 20, 2004, that there have never been any cases of attempted illegal organ transplantation in the United States. UNOS officials and transplant physicians have stated emphatically that it would be impossible to successfully conceal any U.S. clandestine organ trafficking ring.

On December 23, 2004, Al-Watan published the corrective article "American Embassy in Saudi Arabia: Trafficking in Organs Is Forbidden Since 1984," which quoted a letter from the U.S. embassy that cited the facts in the previous paragraph.

Created: 14 Jan 2005 Updated: 14 Jan 2005