By Princess Chukwuneke
According to the 2014 World Bank statistics, about 22.5% of Iraq’s population of 30 million live in severe poverty. Breadwinners do not earn enough to pay for rent, healthcare, or the needs of their children. Being proud, many Iraqi families refuse to beg for food. As a desperate solution, they turn instead to selling their kidneys.
Baghdad and Kurdistan are two prominent organ trafficking hubs, with illegal gangs offering up …

Perspectives from Working with Doctors Without Borders
On October 2nd, 2013, over 200 University of Iowa Students, Faculty and Community members gathered to learn about the medical situation in Syria during the war. Dr. John Lawrence was invited to speak about his recent surgical mission in Syria with Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). This free lecture was an opportunity for students and community members to hear first-hand what medical professionals …

By Maria Coluccio
Last month, the Russian Constitutional Court published a ruling that upheld the legality of harvesting organs from a cadaver without the family’s permission. The ruling was a response to a lawsuit over the harvesting of a deceased Moscow student’s organs without the family’s consent. Alina Sablina was killed in a car accident in January 2014, and her parents were shocked to discover that several of her organs had …