Public Health vs. Medical Exploitation as a Type of Human Trafficking

OBJECTIVE: The aim: This article will consider the forms of medical exploitation that occur in human trafficking (organ/tissue removal, conducting illegal experiments and forced pregnancy), as well as their impact on public health. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: This research is based on regulation acts, scientific articles, judgments of the ECHR and national court judgments. Such methods as dialectical, comparative, analytic, synthetic, logical-semantic and method of content analysis. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Human trafficking is quite common. The purpose of any human trafficking is exploitation. A significant number of manipulations carried out with the human body for medical purposes allows us to single out an independent form of exploitation - «medical exploitation». The specified manifestations of medical exploitation cause irreparable damage to a person's physical and/or mental health. In the worst cases, it leads to the death of the victim. During medical exploitation, the psyche of a person who has become a victim of human trafficking always suffers. Sometimes her physical health can be adversely affected. The spectrum of the consequences is quite wide - from a slight deterioration in well-being to such damage to health that the victim becomes disabled. This leads to the deterioration of other determinants that determine the state of human health. Human trafficking for the purpose of medical exploitation ultimately harms public health, as the above-mentioned consequences reduce its level of safety, and also indicate the deterioration of the health of a significant number of individuals.