History Main / OrganTheft

* In the French mini-series ''Series/SyndromeE'' (an adaptation of the novel by Franck Thilliez & Anbara Salam) someone goes around stealing the brains of several murder victims. Turns out the victims were part of a MadScience experiment and the brains are needed for study on its effects.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The Vidiians. Only that this is not so much organ theft as organ ''hijacking'': they literally ''take away'' an organ from a person by ''{{teleport|ation}}ing it''. When this happens to Neelix in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS1E4Phage Phage]]", the Doctor gives him ''HardLight lungs'' until they can be replaced. In this case, the fact it's a ''cross-species'' theft raises serious FridgeLogic issues, as there's no reason why medicine that's advanced enough to perform xenografts couldn't turn to non-sentient animals as donors instead. The "urban legend" aspect does come up in conversation between Janeway and Chakotay.

* ''Series/Space1999'': In "Mission of the Darians", a GenerationShip suffered a radiation overload, and only fourteen crewmembers survived uncontaminated while the others eventually formed a primitive society that forgot its origins. The fourteen extend their lifespans via this trope, believing it's NecessarilyEvil to get their spacecraft and its genetic bank to a new planet where their race can start anew. They use GodGuise to convince the primitive outside to hand over sacrifices that get used for their organ bank.

* In Mega-City One from ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', organ transplantation is illegal because it has advanced to the point that it can render an individual immortal. Organ selling is a prevalent crime throughout Mega-City One.

** Then there was the man stealing his victims' {{eye|Scream}}s to use in ''{{taxidermy|IsCreepy}}''.

Organ Theft, as the name would imply, is the practice of stealing people's organs via surgery, which can then be used for further purposes such as transplants or sold on the BlackMarket.[[note]]Yes, there's a black market for organs, because legitimate doctors (and, for that matter, lawyers) are way too {{Squick}}ed out by the idea of selling organs to even ''consider'' doing it or allowing it to happen. Never mind that the demand for organs is shockingly high, and sadly, some people need money more than they need their organs. Which is why said black market ''exists'' in the first place.[[/note]] One particularly common variant of this trope is the [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/robbery/kidney.asp "kidney theft"]] UrbanLegend, in which the victim is conned somehow and drugged into unconsciousness, and then wakes up kidney-less, crudely stitched up in a bathtub full of ice in a cheap motel, often with a message attached telling them to go to a hospital.

* Halfway through ''Fanfic/SpiderNinja'', [[spoiler:Raphael is unconscious in SHIELD's medical bay. Dr. Connors, believing that the Turtles' mutated DNA might hold a clue to genetic alteration, steals some of Raph's blood to further his experiments and possibly grow his arm back. [[LaserGuidedKarma This comes back to bite him]], as the serum he makes with the mutagen [[DoomedByCanon turns him into a giant lizard]].]] When the Hamatos learn about this, they're [[{{Understatement}} a little upset]].

* ''Series/TheAquabatsSuperShow'' features the "in transit" variant: the Aquabats are assigned to transport a replacement brain to Governor Robot, and the villainous Silver Skull is trying to steal it from them -- with Governor Robot incapacitated, Silver Skull will be able to usurp his authority. [[spoiler In a twist, he ''succeeds'' by impersonating the very general who gave the Aquabats the job in the first place.]]

* TheTeaser of the ''[=CI5=]: The New Professionals'' episode "Choice Cuts" played the UrbanLegend version entirely straight. The villains left the hotel room telephone right next to the ice-filled bathtub along with a note: ''Call 911 or you will die!'', but the victim (an FBI agent) dies anyway thanks to having both kidneys removed.

* [[SuperpowerfulGenetics Genetically-transferred powers]] in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' tend to be tied to specific organs that can be [[BadassTransplant transplanted into others]]. Eyes, arms, hearts, [[BodySurf entire bodies]]--you name a body part, ninja are stealing it from each other. The Uchiha clan even have a DeadlyUpgrade whose downsides are negated if using stolen eyes. In most cases, the organs are harvested from ninja that were killed in battle.

* One issue of Zenescope's ''Grimm Tales of Terror'' features as its VillainProtagonist a woman who is part of an organ theft ring, acting as a HoneyTrap at hotel bars to lure her targets up to a room where she gives them [[SlippingAMickey drugged drinks]]; once they're unconscious, she removes the organs she's been paid to collect and then leaves her victim in a bathtub full of ice. [[spoiler: In the obligatory KarmicTwistEnding, she falls victim to this herself, as her latest mark is actually another organ thief, who drugs her and leaves her to wake up in an ice bath [[AnArmAndALeg minus all her limbs]], which are then delivered to a CorruptCorporateExecutive for his fetish collection.]]

* ''Fanfic/SeventhEndmostVision'': The BigBad, Lucrecia, did this to [[spoiler: Ifalna]] by stealing her eye... and ''implanting it in her own skull''. She's made almost no attempt to hide the change; multiple characters have figured out a rough date for the change by looking at photographs of her, since there's photos of her before that show her with her two natural brown eyes, and all photos after show her having the one green eye. [[spoiler: Ifalna, at least, thinks she did it to see as an Ancient would see.]]
* In Music/SpiceGirls Fic, ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/20994356 Case of the Missing Technology]]'', if UnwillingRoboticisation wasn't enough, the narrator had to inform Simon after discovering what happened to Melanie's original organs apart from her brain, "Black market, I'm afraid. How else he makes his money to put innocent people through?" [[spoiler: Music/MelanieC had to get biomechanical replacements, via 3D printer]].
* Halfway through ''Fanfic/SpiderNinja'', [[spoiler: Raphael is unconscious in SHIELD's medical bay. Dr. Connors, believing that the Turtles' mutated DNA might hold a clue to genetic alteration, steals some of Raph's blood to further his experiments and possibly grow his arm back. [[LaserGuidedKarma This comes back to bite him]], as the serum he makes with the mutagen [[DoomedByCanon turns him into a giant lizard]].]] When the Hamatos learn about this, they're [[{{Understatement}} a little upset]].
* ''Fanfic/AGameOfCatAndCat'': [[BackAlleyDoctor "Doctor Dude"]] is an odd case. He has removed the appendixes - ''just'' the appendixes - of many of his living patients, and takes all the organs of anyone who happens to die on his operating table - even though he does his best to treat them. It is unknown why he is taking people's organs, as there's no indication he is involved with the Black Market. When asked about it he more or less says that the body is nothing but a bag of meat after the spirit has departed for the next cycle or Karma. [[spoiler:Though given [[VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga what game]] he comes from...]]

* ''Film/HrudayaGeethe:'' Dr Prasad the Chief doctor of a mental hospital is harvesting his patients' organs. First, he is running an "involuntary confinement for pay" scam in which certain people who are an inconvenience are designated as mentally ill and confined for the right price. Those people are then "prescribed" a tonic which is actually a poison that causes them to have painful spasms. To "treat" this, they are sent to surgery where they die and their organs are semi-legitimately harvested.
* In ''Film/TheImaginariumOfDoctorParnassus'' [[spoiler: this turns out to be what Tony did to the ''children of his charity''. He had previously claimed the reason for his disgrace was doing business with Russian gangsters in order to fund the charity.]]

* ''Snakehead'', one of the later ''Literature/AlexRider'' books, uses this as a justification for the villain [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim keeping Alex alive]] [[OnceAnEpisode yet again]]. He has Alex taken to a hidden facility where his various organs will be removed one-at-a-time (finishing with the heart) and sold to wealthy customers, allowing him to recover what Alex has cost him. Alex doesn't stick around.

* ''Literature/BubblesInSpace'': In the future with so much cybernetics and attempts to live longer, this is a thriving market. Bubbles comments that there's more bodies than missing persons. This is {{Foreshadowing}} [[spoiler: that the organ traffickers have been targeting refugees from the Barrens.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** In one of the [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] novels, this one is done rather weirdly. The Doctor is ill because something is the matter with [[BizarreAlienBiology one of his hearts]]. The villain thought transplanting a Time Lord's heart to himself would help him time travel, so [[AlwaysABiggerFish he stole it]], curing the decaying heart problem but creating a new, [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow massive-hole-in-the-Doctor's-chest]] problem. [[GoodThingYouCanHeal Good Thing He Can Heal]]. One of his hearts was a link to Gallifrey, which he'd destroyed in "The Ancestor Cell" (different Time War).
** In the AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio play "Spare Parts", the Doctor encounters Thomas Dodd, a BackAlleyDoctor dealing in recycled organs that he gets from desperate people on Mondas who sell their own or that of recently deceased relatives. He can't resist when the perfectly healthy Doctor turns up and tries to lock him in his organ freezer. Later the Doctor gets his cooperation by promising one of his hearts (he doesn't have to pay because Dodd gets dragged away to be turned into a Cyberman).

* ''Eveless Eden'' by Marianne Wiggins. An IntrepidReporter discovers that the Romanian diplomat his girlfriend ran off with runs a company involved in selling blood products (everything from plasma to skin cream, as well as blood itself) taken from Ceausescu's hellish orphanage system. Thanks to the incompetent way the orphanages are run, HIV-tainted blood has long ago entered the system.
* ''Literature/EveryHeartADoorway'': When the murders start, the first victim has her hands taken - while she's still alive. The second loses her eyes in the same way. The third, her brain. [[spoiler:The killer is trying to create a "skeleton key" - a girl who will allow her to open any of the Doors to otherworlds.]]

* The concealed EvilPlan of the fourth ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'', book, ''Transcending Limitations'', centers on this trope. [[spoiler: Kaiba Gunrai wants to kidnap Annala and extract everything from her, organs included, because she has been TouchedByVolrons and he wants to replicate this for super soldiers that he can sell, in addition to boosting other industries, such as magical reagents.]] The victim isn't killed because her HealingFactor means she can't be killed, and more importantly for her captor, he can collect multiple copies of each organ.
* Creator/ChristopherMoore's ''Literature/IslandOfTheSequinedLoveNun'' has two {{Big Bad}}s convincing an island full of people that [[GodGuise they are the personification]] of the local CargoCult gods. It turns out they have a database composed of the natives' medical information and are running an on-demand black organ market, harvesting (among other things) kidneys, hearts, and corneas.

* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' series is the TropeMaker. Prior to the invention of cloned organs to replace failed ones, the demand for replacement organs is so high that lawmakers make more and more crimes punishable by death penalty, with the organs of the punished being harvested for use. Naturally, such a high demand makes it a high profit item, which attacts criminals who become as "organleggers" who are even ''less'' picky than the legal system about whose organs are harvested. Eyes in particular are noted to be in high demand, for criminals who [[BorrowedBiometricBypass wish to fool retina scanners]].

* In the English sci-fi drama ''Literature/NeverLetMeGo'', [[spoiler: the protagonist and her fellow students willingly submit to having their organs removed -- they're all cloned humans created for the specific purpose of organ harvesting]].
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' has Lazarus Long mention how he'd never engage in killing people to strip them of their organs, ''but'', he knows of several planets where you could point someone out, and a thug would quote you a price and ask which parts you want and "when and where did you want them delivered?" (He's giving the explanation to point out that there are some places where you can buy anything).

* ''Literature/{{Unwind}}'' exaggerates this in the most horrific way possible -- not only is the process ''legal'', it's used as a way to get rid of unwanted children and supported and run by the government.
** Technically yes, although more reminiscent of the trope are the Parts Pirates, who capture kids not specifically marked for unwinding, basically kidnapping them and shipping them to private unwind facilities. It's stated that in China, they don't even take all of you at once, which the lead Parts Pirate in North America finds [[EvenEvilHasStandards revolting]].

* ''Series/TheAquabatsSuperShow'' features the "in transit" variant: the Aquabats are assigned to transport a replacement brain to Governor Robot, and the villainous Silver Skull is trying to steal it from them - with Governor Robot incapacitated, Silver Skull will be able to usurp his authority. [[spoiler: In a twist, he ''succeeds'' by impersonating the very general who gave the Aquabats the job in the first place.]]

*** The ''Series/CriminalMindsBeyondBorders'' episode "Harvested" plays out the Urban Legend from the description, with a healthy dose of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, in that the victim dies. [[spoiler: The killer wasn't even concerned about the organs' viability. His dead father had his liver, corneas, and heart donated (properly, by doctors in a hospital setting) and he believed he needed to replace them so that his father could be complete in the afterlife.]]

* ''Series/CSICyber'': In "Fit-and-Run", the motivation for a series of kidnappings and murder turns out to be a father and a husband desperate to find a replacement kidney for a dying woman. [[spoiler:The episode ends in a TheBadGuyWins situation - the team arrests the duo, but the older man, who was a recently retired surgeon, has already finished transplanting one of the final victim's kidney's into his daughter, with both said final victim and daughter having survived the transplant surgery.]]

** An episode had an organ being stolen ''after'' it was legitimately removed, with a murder or two in the process. It turned out [[spoiler: the transplant surgeon at the recipient's hospital]] was behind the theft because his wife was dying and needed it.
** Yet another episode had a corrupt ex-coroner who'd been stealing organs and tissues for a different reason - to process them for the drugs they contained; the victims were all dead drug addicts from cases that came through his morgue.
* On ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', Katherine thought she'd found the perfect guy until she found out he'd been to prison for doing this. Of course, every adult living on Wisteria Lane has committed multiple felonies, but this was [[MoralEventHorizon the one crime that was too much for them to accept.]]

* On ''Series/{{Justified}}'' a group of criminals sell organs on the black market. However, they primarily harvest the organs from the recent corpses of people who died in prison rather than then by stealing them from living people. They have access to the prisoners' medical records and use people trained in this type of operation. The one time they operate on a live person [[spoiler: it is a ruse to make the victim think that they took his kidneys so he will steal for them. All they did was make a couple cuts and sutured them up.]]

* Played straight on ''Series/LawAndOrder'', which may actually have helped disseminate the "kidney theft" urban legend (''{{WebSite/Snopes}}'' speculates that the plot, which WordOfGod claims a friend [[RippedFromTheHeadlines saw in a newspaper]], was based on a false allegation published in the ''Daily Telegraph'' in 1989). [=SVU=]'s Captain Cragen (who appeared in the episode) later dismissed such stories as urban legends.
** A more realistic variant shows up in ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'', where a pediatric surgeon is revealed to illegally harvest organs from her braindead patients without their parents' consent. It's done in a hospital setting with all the proper staffing and equipment; the only thing missing is a signature on a form.

* The ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' episode "What Money Can't Buy" deals with this as Murphy goes against a black market organ ring when two people steal a pair of lungs meant to save a boy Murphy helped rescue in the prior episode ("Officer Down") after his body started to reject the lungs he was given in an earlier operation. [[spoiler: The duo and their boss stole the lungs for a crime boss, and the boy's earlier lungs came from the same criminal ring and were taken from someone who died from tuberculosis.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. [[http://wiki.dumpshock.com/index.php/Tamanous Tamanous]] is a criminal syndicate that deals in organlegging. They kidnap and murder the homeless and will pay for recently-dead bodies, and among other things are known for stripping dead bodies of their cyberware to sell on the black market. Street doctors have been known to engage in Organ Theft as well, including patients who can't pay their medical bills. Tamanous even has a way to get rid of the leftovers once all the saleable parts are gone - they sell them to [[ImAHumanitarian ghouls]].

* Crops up in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' Halloween mission "The Organ Smugglers." Here, it's revealed that the [[MegaCorp Orochi Group]] have been singling out unique individuals for organ harvesting, using their contacts among the CDC to isolate the donors and provide the medical service. Most of the cliches inherent to the urban legend are lampshaded during Marianne Chen's confession, and are only fulfilled on explicit orders from the harvesters - apparently for no other reason than to further the legend. For good measure, Bong Cha warns Dragon players to avoid getting captured by the harvesters after you run into a pack of them, noting that [[ResurrectiveImmortality with your abilities]], they could harvest you for a virtual eternity. [[spoiler: A visit to Orochi headquarters reveals that one unfortunate Bee has already been subjected to this.]]

* [[SuperpowerfulGenetics Genetically-transferred powers]] in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' tend to be tied to specific organs that can be [[BadassTransplant transplanted into others]]. Eyes, arms, hearts, entire bodies, you name a body part, ninja are stealing it from each other. There's even a whole clan that got powerups from stealing each other's eyes. Though many of them (though not all) are courteous enough to kill the person before stealing their body parts.

* ''Anime/RayTheAnimation'': Ray had her eyes stolen when she was a child; Manga/BlackJack replaced them with eyes capable of XRayVision. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she was literally ''[[CloningBlues made]]'' for this purpose.]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SherlockHolmesInTheTwentySecondCentury'' had an organ trafficking ring that turned out to be cloning their products... and cloning is considered illegal due to CloneDegeneration.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Website/CollegeHumor'': In the "UrbanLegend ER" video, a doctor is about to perform an organ transplant when a woman bursts into the ER claiming that the kidneys are actually hers and that she woke up in a bathtub full of ice that morning with two huge scars on her back. After she faints, the doctor tells the nurse to give the woman her kidneys back.

* ''WebVideo/{{Oxventure}}'' ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign:

* On an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', Wooldoor does this to Toot.
* This was one of the UrbanLegends used in ''WesternAnimation/FreakyStories'', although they moved it into the future in an attempt to slightly reduce the {{Squick}} factor. In this version the guy's ''entire body'' got stolen, leaving him a disembodied head connected to a portable life support unit.

** In "Valentine's Day in Quahog", Meg's date turns out to be a black market dealer who takes her kidney. After spending the day together, he gives the kidney back to her in a jar, which she keeps on her shelf as a memento.
** In "Old World Harm", Joe lets Peter and Lois spend their vacation at his mom's condo in Florida, which turns out to be in a retirement community where the seniors harvest young peoples' organs. After the two escape and comment how Joe was in the dark about all this, it's revealed the whole thing was a scheme to replace his crippled legs with theirs; [[spoiler: he decides to settle for Cleveland's black legs instead.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has an entire episode about this, entitled "Dark Harvest". In the episode, Zim is afraid of being [[BizarreAlienBiology revealed as an alien by medical science]], and decides that the solution to this issue is to ''pack his torso with human organs'' from the children at the school and replace the stolen parts with random nearby objects. Oddly, this generally only seems to cause discomfort and severe fatigue, but it leaves ''Zim'' a grotesquely obese sack of organs. In the end, this plan somehow works.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'': After Superman was brainwashed by Darkseid, Dr. Hamilton was scared enough that he stole Supergirl's DNA, went to CADMUS, and cloned Galatea (a Supergirl clone who was loyal to CADMUS alone). When the super cousins learn the truth, they're [[{{Understatement}} a little upset]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS2E17ArgghYouForRealGarageBanned Garage Banned]]" [[ChildProdigy Lisa]] tries to take Lincoln's kidney for an experiment.

* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': When Kilgrave got badly injured in a car accident on the night Jessica broke free of his control over her, he was left with crush syndrome where one of his kidneys was badly damaged. He wanted to be made whole again, so he made the ambulance driver give up his kidneys and ordered the transplant surgeon at the hospital to falsify a death certificate and give Kilgrave the new kidneys. The original donor had a stroke and is now confined to his home where he's hooked up to a dialysis machine (and writes out "[[AndIMustScream KILL ME]]" when Jessica stops by to interview him), while Jessica learns from the transplant surgeon that Kilgrave will have to harvest a new set of kidneys in a couple of years.