Italy rushes in law to ban 'spare part' baby sales
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 18/05/2003)
Italy's government has vowed to push through legislation to stop the sale of
human organs after a female gang auctioned off a newborn child near the
southern port of Bari, possibly so that its organs could be used for
transplants.
The three-strong gang of Ukrainians, including the baby's mother, sold the boy
for 350,000 euros (£250,000) while he was still in the womb, not realising
that the successful bidders were undercover carabinieri police officers.
The police are now investigating several Italians for expressing an interest in
buying the child for its organs. "The terrible case of Bari confirms the
urgency. A bill is before the justice committee of the lower house which
explicitly envisages cases not only of sexual exploitation but also the removal
of organs," said Stefania Prestagiacomo, minister for equal opportunities.
Doctors at Rome's Babbino Gesu paediatric hospital said that both the heart and
liver of a newborn baby would be suitable for transplant, although the heart
would only help another infant.
Last week Pier Luigi Vigna, the head of Italy's anti-Mafia commission, said
that there was "more than just a suspicion" that the group was attempting to
traffic human organs.
Last January the gang offered the unborn baby to startled officers posing as
drug runners. "There's a five-month parcel waiting for you if you're
interested," they announced.
The bidding began at €50,000 (£35,000) but the price swiftly started to rise
as investigators struggled to keep pace with rival bidders. Their overriding
interest, they said last week, was to secure the "purchase" and save the baby's
life.
On the evening of May 9, the "parcel" was born in a flat in Giovinazzo, near
Bari, and given to the carabinieri for cash after they outbid rivals, an
unnamed Italian couple.
Last week the three gang members, and their male bodyguard-cum-driver, were
arrested and charged with attempted enslavement. The child's mother, a
28-year-old prostitute, is being held in prison along with Olena Kaurova, 62,
and Nadia Tkachenko, 46, the suspected gang ringleader. Their bodyguard,
Mykhaylo Mamot, 30, was also held for illegal possession of arms.
Investigators believe that the traffickers might have sold other children for
illegal adoption whenever one of the prostitutes they controlled became
pregnant.
Police suspicions were raised by the expert delivery and "surgical precision"
with which Kaurova cut the umbilical cord in the kitchen of the flat, which led
them to believe that the gang had previously performed the same tasks on other
babies.