Aggregated News
BELGRADE — Pavle Mircov and his partner Daniella nervously scan their e-mail in-box every 15 minutes, desperate for economic salvation: a buyer willing to pay €30,000 for one of their kidneys.
The parents of two teenagers put their organs up for sale on a local online classified site six months ago after Mr. Mircov, 50, lost his job at a meat factory here. He says that even his pleas to work as a waiter have been rebuffed.
When his father recently died, he could not afford a tombstone. The telephone service has been cut off and the family lives in the dark to save on electricity. One meal a day of bread and salami is their only extravagance. “When you need to put food on the table, selling a kidney doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice,” Mr. Mircov said.
With Europe roiled by financial upheaval, experts say that the black market for human organs — traditionally based in China, India, Brazil and the Philippines — is expanding to crisis-hit Western countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, and poor Balkan nations...
The parents of two teenagers put their organs up for sale on a local online classified site six months ago after Mr. Mircov, 50, lost his job at a meat factory here. He says that even his pleas to work as a waiter have been rebuffed.
When his father recently died, he could not afford a tombstone. The telephone service has been cut off and the family lives in the dark to save on electricity. One meal a day of bread and salami is their only extravagance. “When you need to put food on the table, selling a kidney doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice,” Mr. Mircov said.
With Europe roiled by financial upheaval, experts say that the black market for human organs — traditionally based in China, India, Brazil and the Philippines — is expanding to crisis-hit Western countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, and poor Balkan nations...