A report released Thursday by an Iranian opposition group exposes the burgeoning human organ trade operating in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where desperate sellers regularly post public ads for everything from kidneys to livers, lungs, bone marrow, corneas, blood plasma and other body parts.

Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group operating out of Albania, issued the report “Selling body parts: a tragedy in Iran” to highlight how the country’s high cost of living and widespread poverty is leading many to take drastic measures to survive.

“In Tehran, Farhang Hosseini Alley (central Tehran) is known as Kidney Street. The central building of the Association of Support for Kidney patients is located in the middle of this alley,” according to the report.

“In previous years (organ advertisements) filled all sides of the alley. Tags full of cell phone numbers were placed all over the walls. … Some people had written their message on the wall or on a sheet of paper with a pen or marker. Some had painted their ads on the wall. The message of all the murals on this street’s buildings was the same: sales and purchasing ads for kidneys, livers and even corneas,” the Resistance reports. “The phone numbers and blood types of the sellers were also mentioned in the ads.” – READ MORE