The World Health Organization (WHO) stated its disapproval of commercialised organ trade for transplantation purposes in the fifth of their "Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation" that were first decided on in 1991 (WHA44.25). In the current version of this resolution that came out in 2010 (WHA63.22), the acceptable compensation of expenditures that may accrue to an organ donor in the course of living donation is clearly distinguished from financial incentives exceeding such restitution that should be prohibited.

The United Nations (UN) considers trafficking with human organs a cause for human trafficking in a supplementary protocol to its "Convention against Transnational Organized Crime" of 2000. However, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report on international trafficking, only 0.2% of victims of trafficking detected in 2020 were involved in illegal organ trafficking, but there are estimates that 5-10% of all kidney and liver transplants are conducted with illegally obtained organs. In comparison, in 2020 38.7% of detected victims of trafficking were subject to sexual exploitation and 38.8% were victims of forced labour. 

Admittedly, there are no reliable numbers on the extent of worldwide illegal organ trade. It is thus suspected that, presently, the human traffickers that organise illegal organ removals as well as the receivers of the procured organs, whose activities are also referred to as "transplantation tourism", mostly go unpunished.

The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) distinguishes between three types of illegal organ trade: (i) when persons are forced or deceived into giving up an organ, (ii) when persons decide to have an organ removed for financial reasons and are then not rewarded as previously agreed, and (iii) when organs are removed from persons without their consent in allegedly therapeutic interventions.

The Council of Europe prohibits raising financial gains from the human body and its parts in general, as well as organ and tissue trafficking in particular, in articles 21 and 22, respectively, of an "Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning Transplantation of Organs and Tissues of Human Origin" (2002). In 2015, another convention of the Council of Europe (CETS No. 216), which came into force on 1 March 2018, substantiated the ban on organ trafficking in terms of criminal law.

A further international document which is relevant for the proscription of organ trade is the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism of 2008 that was initiated by the Transplantation Society in cooperation with the International Society of Nephrology. In Germany, the prohibition of organ trade is clearly established in the Transplant Act.