Science Fiction To Scary Fact

As far as I know, Larry Niven was the person to originate the term "organlegger". From about 1969 onward, Niven produced a number of stories set in his "Known Space" universe that had to do with the subject of both legal and illegal organ transplants. Among some of the best are the "Gil the Arm" stories.

Organleggers were particularly dangerous. They kidnapped people, killed them and harvested the organs for the black market. This may actually be one of the origins of that popular urban legend about the guy waking up in the bathtub full of ice with a kidney or two missing. There is also a legal market, fueled with organs harvested from executed criminals. The scary part is that the crimes carrying a death sentence grew less and less severe as demand grew.

Now some doctors in Britain are charging that China is doing just that. They claim the Chinese are harvesting the organs of executed criminals and selling them. The Chinese government denies this, but the British doctors are trying to gather documentation.

Scary, isn't it?