organlegging n.

the illegal trading of human organs for transplant; cf. organlegger n.

SF Encyclopedia


  • 1969 L. Niven Organleggers in Galaxy Jan. 118/1 page image Larry Niven bibliography

    It involved an organlegging gang, apparently run by a single man, yet big enough to cover half the North American west coast.

  • 1969 L. Niven Organleggers in Galaxy Jan. 140/2 page image Larry Niven bibliography

    The crime of organlegging was the result of thousands of years of medical progress, of millions of lives selflessly dedicated to the ideals of healing the sick.

  • 2006 A. D. Foster Sagramanda 137 Alan Dean Foster bibliography

    If there were not bounty hunters of company security personnel or independent investigators, what did they want with him? Thoughts of organlegging returned.

  • 2011 C. Stross Rule 34 i. 42 page image Charles Stross bibliography

    There’s a Person of Repeated Interest in Pilton who’s just turned up at the Royal Infirmary with forty sutures in his lower back, a nasty case of MRSA, and a missing kidney. Question from CID, Do we have an organlegging problem or is this just punishment surgery?

Research requirements

any evidence 1969
Earliest cite

Larry Niven
Research History
Suggested by David Starner, who says he has a cite from the 1990 GURPS cyberpunk manual.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2011 cite from Charles Stross.

Last modified 2021-03-25 20:33:55
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.