Scott Carney
Encyclopedia
Scott Carney is an American freelance journalist. He reported from Chennai
, India
between 2006–2009 and currently resides in Long Beach, CA. He contributes stories on a variety of medical, technological and ethical issues to Wired Magazine, Mother Jones (magazine)
and National Public Radio. His first book "The Red Market: On the trail of the world's organ brokers, bone thieves, blood farmers and child traffickers" was published by William Morrow/Harper Collins in June 2011.
for his story "Meet the Parents". In 2008, he was selected as a finalist for the Livingston Award for International Journalism for an article titled "The Bone Factory", he was also a finalist for the same award in 2010 for this story "Cash on Delivery" about surrogate pregnancies in India. He has been nominated for the Daniel Pearl Award from the South Asian Journalists Association three times.
and gray markets he suggests that commerce in body parts is separate because bodies are not commodities in a strict sense. Instead commerce in human bodies needs to account for the ineffable quality of life and creates a lifelong debt between the provider and receiver of the flesh. Straight commerce in human bodies disguises the supply chain and reduces a human life into meat. Carney calls for "radical transparency" in the red market supply chain in order to protect its humanness.
The book traces the rise, fall, and resurgence of this multibillion-dollar underground trade through history, from early medical study and modern universities to poverty-ravaged Eurasian villages and high-tech Western labs; from body snatchers and surrogate mothers
to skeleton dealers and the poor who sell body parts to survive. While local and international law enforcement have cracked down on the market, advances in science have increased the demand for human tissue—ligaments, kidneys, even rented space in women's wombs—leaving little room to consider the ethical dilemmas inherent in the flesh-and-blood trade.
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
between 2006–2009 and currently resides in Long Beach, CA. He contributes stories on a variety of medical, technological and ethical issues to Wired Magazine, Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
and National Public Radio. His first book "The Red Market: On the trail of the world's organ brokers, bone thieves, blood farmers and child traffickers" was published by William Morrow/Harper Collins in June 2011.
Awards
He won the 2010 Payne Award for Ethics in JournalismPayne Award for Ethics in Journalism
The Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism were created at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communications in 1999. In the words of the school's dean, Tim Gleason, the awards were created "to honor the journalist of integrity and character who reports with insight and clarity in...
for his story "Meet the Parents". In 2008, he was selected as a finalist for the Livingston Award for International Journalism for an article titled "The Bone Factory", he was also a finalist for the same award in 2010 for this story "Cash on Delivery" about surrogate pregnancies in India. He has been nominated for the Daniel Pearl Award from the South Asian Journalists Association three times.
The Red Market
Carney coined the phrase "The Red Market" to describe a broad category of economic transactions around the human body. Drawing on the concepts black markets, white marketsWhite market
The white market, in libertarian economic theory, is the legal market for goods and services. It is distinct from the black market of illegally trafficked goods and the gray market, in which commodities are distributed through channels which, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended...
and gray markets he suggests that commerce in body parts is separate because bodies are not commodities in a strict sense. Instead commerce in human bodies needs to account for the ineffable quality of life and creates a lifelong debt between the provider and receiver of the flesh. Straight commerce in human bodies disguises the supply chain and reduces a human life into meat. Carney calls for "radical transparency" in the red market supply chain in order to protect its humanness.
The book traces the rise, fall, and resurgence of this multibillion-dollar underground trade through history, from early medical study and modern universities to poverty-ravaged Eurasian villages and high-tech Western labs; from body snatchers and surrogate mothers
Surrogacy
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child for another couple or person. This woman may be the child's genetic mother , or she may carry the pregnancy to delivery after having an embryo, to which she has no genetic relationship whatsoever, transferred to her uterus...
to skeleton dealers and the poor who sell body parts to survive. While local and international law enforcement have cracked down on the market, advances in science have increased the demand for human tissue—ligaments, kidneys, even rented space in women's wombs—leaving little room to consider the ethical dilemmas inherent in the flesh-and-blood trade.