African American homicides may fuel organ trafficking
By: Dr. Samori Swygert
I was having a conversation with my studio engineer last night, and he encouraged me to watch a BBC documentary on the underground economy of organ harvesting and cadavers. This came up because I was telling him about the morbidity rates of African Americans that come through the hospital I work at.
I was explaining (in anonymity for HIPAA purposes) how there are so many young African Americans diagnosed with HIV, HIV(+) mothers that are giving birth, and of course victims of shootings, and stabbings. We were discussing potential methods of reducing crime and risky behavior through the music we’re producing, via positive and real life messages.
I watched the BBC Documentary, and the facts in the documentary hit me like a ton of bricks. Various factions of society are profiteering hundreds of millions into billions of dollars from both an illegal underground, and a legally regulated economy based on dead bodies.
The documentary detailed the intricacies of demands that medical schools have for cadavers, to train medical and dental students. This is how soon to be doctors gain their skill, and mastery of anatomical orientation. Anatomy and physiology are the basic bricks in almost any career in the healthcare field. Thus, there is a high demand for cadavers for students to dissect and train.
Many people also undergo orthopedic surgery, organ transplants, and other tissue replacement surgeries. There is a reciprocal balance to life and death. The longer you live, the probability of needing some sort of surgery increases, and the humans that die and choose to donate their bodies, serve as a viable resource for successful surgeries. Cadavers can be used for their: corneas, bones, heart valves, skin, blood vessels (Saphenous Veins for cardiac bypass surgery), and of course their organs.
The documentary estimated that a cadaver can be worth up to $250,000. This made me extrapolate this to our African American community and the conversation I had with my music engineer, Highlife. Are we worth more posthumously, when we consider young African Americans dying in the violence like in : Chicago, Miami, Camden, Philly, Detroit, New York City, New Orleans, and etc?
Let’s look at the math. Let’s say a relatively young 18 year old male that lives in the streets without a financially established family bleeds to death from a gunshot to the neck. If the family can’t afford to bury him properly, or there is just no family claim to him, he can be a jackpot for this economy. Harvesters can use his veins for bypass surgery, his corneas, heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, his bones, and a whole lot more. Let’s extrapolate this to annual murder rates within America that hit triple digit numbers on an annual basis in numerous states across the country.
This is serious, remember Trayvon Martin’s body lay in the morgue unclaimed and unidentified for a few days. What would have happened to his relatively healthy young body?
Between the use of cadavers and the prison industry, we are fueling a multibillion dollar industry from cultural genocide within our African American community. One person goes to jail and institutions cash in, the other dies and institutions cash in, funeral homes cash in, firearms and ammunition manufacturers cash in, medical supply companies cash in from surgical use and supplies required for length of stay in a hospital.
People were we born to be the cash cow of America by subscribing and resorting to violence? Also, I’m not interested in hearing that other cultures kill their people, I’m solely focused and concerned about what’s happening in our community because these homicides, and suicides are affecting our families and future.
What’s your thoughts on this? I have attached the link to the BBC documentary below so you can watch it with your family or just yourself. Peace……
