Cash-strapped Indonesians are cutting out the middleman and selling their organs online, exploiting a loophole in local laws and fueling a dangerous and illegal trade in human body parts.
Hundreds of advertisements have appeared on Indonesian personal advertising Web sites offering kidneys for as little as Rp 50 million ($5,300) each.
Among the usual cars, jewelry and beauty products, one advertisement on www.iklanoke.com states: "16-year-old male selling a kidney for Rp 350 million or in exchange for a Toyota Camry."
Many of the advertisers – students, professionals and even housewives – are not shy about using their real names or leaving their contact numbers.
Most insist they are disease-free and do not smoke, consume alcohol or take drugs. Family debts and outstanding bank loans are driving them to desperate measures, they say.
Eighteen-year-old high-school student Elisa said her family had debts worth tens of thousands of dollars after a fire razed their home in Jakarta and her father's grocery store failed.
"We now live at my grandmother's house. My mother works as a cook and my father helps out at an uncle's grocery store, but their earnings are only enough to buy food," Elisa said.
"I owe my school six months in fees. I often cry thinking about our fate. A movie I saw said selling kidneys is a quick way to get loads of cash. I want to sell mine so I can buy a new house and pay my school fees," the eldest of four siblings said.
She rejected two Indonesian buyers who couldn't meet her asking price of Rp 800 million, she said. Interested local and foreigner buyers are willing to pay up to Rp 200 million for a kidney, sellers say.
Another seller, 22-year-old graphic designer Andi, said a European and a Chinese have separately offered to buy his kidney for 200 million rupiah – four times his asking price.
"They wanted to see a health report from a doctor and asked if I would go overseas for transplant. After a few e-mails, I never heard from them again," he said.
Andi said he wanted to repay his elderly foster parents for "looking after me like their own," he said.
Organ trading is outlawed in Indonesia and carries a penalty of up to 15 years' jail and a 300 million rupiah fine. Officials acknowledge that sellers get away with it because Web sites such as iklanoke go largely unmonitored and the law is vague and difficult to enforce.
"The health law states that organ transplants can only be carried out for humanitarian purposes but it doesn't define the meaning of humanitarian," said Anas Yusuf, department chief for Indonesia Interpol. "So it's hard to prove if a transplant is carried out for humanitarian or commercial reasons."
He said Interpol was aware of cases of organ trading in Indonesia, although government officials contacted by Agence France-Presse said they had no data on the size of the illegal market.
"Negotiations between sellers and buyers are carried out in private so unless they're reported, we won't know. Also, transplants are usually carried out overseas so it's hard to prosecute offenders," Yusuf said.
Two Indonesian men were jailed and fined in Singapore in July 2008 for their involvement in the organ trade. The judge said that although they had agreed to sell their kidneys, syndicates had exploited their disadvantaged backgrounds.
General practitioner and lawmaker Subagyo Partodiharjo said much of the grisly trade was controlled by an "organ mafia" which approached poor people in remote villages in Java. "I suspect it could be them posting the advertisements on behalf of the sellers," Partodiharjo said.
Public education on the risks of organ transplants and stricter monitoring of the Internet could help reduce the illegal trade, lawmakers said.
"The poor are usually ignorant of the health risks involved and are tempted by the money. Local governments need to inform people not to resort to selling organs to get money," Partodiharjo said.
Twenty-six-year-old telecommunications officer Jhon, who is offering to sell his kidney, liver and cornea, said desperate people would do anything to pull their families out of debt.
"I know about the law, I know about the health risks. Nobody wants to lose a body part and become a handicapped," he said.
"It's a last resort. If I can't earn enough to pay off my family's debt by December, I have no choice. For them, I'm willing to give up everything... my kidneys, my heart, my eyes, even my life," he said.
Selling organs, especially kidneys, is not necessarily a new thing in Indonesia. In October, Zha Kania, a 20-year-old girl from Bandung posted an advertisement in a Web site stating that she intended to sell her kidney for Rp 600 million to pay off her father's debt. She said his garment business collapsed after he was scammed by his partner.
Kania said she needed the money immediately because none of her family members had a stable job and the idea to sell her kidney came from a friend.
According to Surabaya-based psychiatrist Yuniar Soenarko, it was important to consider the sellers' reasons for selling their organs.
Yuaniar said that for those suffering from sheer poverty, selling an organ could be a sensible solution, as long as they were perfectly health. "Their misery ends there because money is the only answer to their problems," she said.
But for those who sold their organs for impulsive reasons, there was a risk of a psychological impact because they were likely to regret their decision even if they were healthy.
"Many people have sold their organs because they wanted to buy a car or drugs, and when they finally came to their senses, they regretted their decision," she said. This regret, she said, could lead to depression and even suicide.
[Agence France Presse with additional reporting from the Jakarta Globe's Dessy Sagita.]