Organ theft narratives

Western Folklore, Winter 1997 by Veronique Campion-Vincent

It must be noted that German-speaking countries show a proclivity for telling and believing such stories. Bengt af Klintberg has informed me that almost all the letters he has received concerning Stolen Kidneys came from these countries. One should also recall that the European tradition of beliefs and legends about stolen kidneys began with the German account of the tourist couple in Istanbul in 1990. And in France, the Stolen Kidney stories have circulated as unstructured but localized rumors mainly in regions close to Germany, especially in Metz and in the Moselle Valley in May 1995.

The Italian response to these stories has been influenced very much by the press which has reported frequently and in some detail on reports coming from Latin America. The Italians are also highly receptive to the anxieties concerning the safety of children. The Italians were incensed when missing Austrian children were reported in the Austrian press of having been transported to Italy. The Italian press was quick to deny such reports categorically, and after a time ceased to report the stories (Olla 1991, Toselli July 1991). Italians often focussed their attention on fashion stores where women were believed to be taken captive and operated on in adjacent caves and cellars or in nearby trucks where the kidneys were removed. Such reports were reported about fashion shops in Bari (1989), Palermo (1991), and in Milan in 1994 (Bermani 1991a 1991b; Toselli 1994:139-148) .

Italy was also the site of Sacaojos-type panics that began in Sicily where the disappearance of a young girl spawned emotion-laden stories and rumors that soon spread to other Italian regions (Rome and EmiliaRomagna 1990, 1991). The stories sometimes targeted Gypsies as the perpetrators and even spawned a punitive raid on a Gypsy-camp near Bologna in 1990 (Stilo and Toselli 1991, Toselli 1994:158-164).

As is often the case with legendry, the first response to such stories is one of belief, passion and outrage that combine to inhibit rational examination of the evidence. Nevertheless, a lingering doubt about the veracity of the report often lingers after the initial adhesion. In such cases, individuals look for confirmation or denial on the part of authority figures whose attitude carries much weight.

The surge of organ-theft stories has not escaped the attention of folklorists or anthropologists. I investigated the first of the "Baby Parts" story (Campion-Vincent 1990). Brunvand (1993), Brednich (1991, 1993) and Toselli (1994)all treat the "Stolen Kidney," but their accounts remain mainly descriptive, while Moravec (1993), Klintberg (1991, 1993) and Burger (1995) are more analytical in their investigations. Among anthropologists, the studies of Ansion (1989) and Wachtel (1992) for the Andean region and of Scheper-Hughes for northeastern Brazil have already been mentioned. Scheper-Hughes has recently (1996) compared the organ-theft rumors of Brazil with those of South Africa.

These stories are reminiscent of the frightening accounts of episodes of "White Slavery" that have been known in the United States for most of the decades of the 20th century. In order to put an end to the trade in `white slaves," that is, captive white women forced into prostitution, the United States government enacted the Mann Act in 1910. In France the story was known as La rumeur d'Orleans that surfaced in 1969, and which engendered great emotional reaction among French citizens, especially because the rumors targeted a group of Jewish shop owners which, in turn, led to fears of a revival of anti-Semitism (Morin 1969). Legends and rumors thrive on the degree and intensity of belief. Even though these stories are so bizarre as to strain credulity, they play on fears and concerns that are so intense that they seem plausible. Moreover, they thrive in an environment in which the medical profession has developed life-support systems that can prolong the life of people who are brain dead. The notion of brain death is not accepted by the non-specialized public whose perceptions are contradicted by the brain-dead "cadaver" that still breathes (albeit with life-support equipment) .