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Commercial butchers of humanity DR TANVIR HUSSAIN BHATTI Friday 3, August 2007 Source: THE POST Opinion Poll
Do you agree inequality threatens S Asian stability? YES NO

The scandalous nexus among rapacious owners of private hospitals, indifferent doctors, cold-hearted paramedical staff and tinpot charlatans indulging in the devilish offence of commercialisation of human organs has cast a slur on an otherwise respectable profession: medicine. These selfish people who have brought a bad name to this philanthropic vocation are a stigma on its face and deserve no respect or amnesty. Each group comprises urologists, nephrologists, anaesthetists, nurses, operation theatre assistants, counterfeit agents who project themselves as doctors, and most importantly, the covetous owners of private hospitals who not only provide kidney transplantation facilities and sanctuary to these disreputable people, but are also the main beneficiaries of this most wicked commerce. They play with human lives as callously as butchers slaughter cattle. They are without a grain of the honourable codes of professionalism, ethical principles, and sentiments of humanity. They put on the market human flesh to flood their coffers with wads of notes. The owners receive a hefty amount, which varies from Rs 600,000-1,200,000 per kidney transplantation, depending upon the package. The net income churned out from each operation, even after paying a little amount to the donor, ranges from Rs 400,000 to 900,000 according to the package, which they divide among their ferocious group according to the evil services provided. What is neglected in this case is to search out the root cause that forces impoverished donors to sell their body parts and to trace the genuine culprits. Are the victims ensnared by the doctors or beguiled by their agents for handsome money? Is grinding poverty compelling the destitute to sell their kidneys willingly? Although this last factor dominates this heinous dark picture, it is also a bitter fact that the unfortunate donor receives only a tiny amount while the major chunk of currency earned through this noxious commerce is parcelled out among the already well-off members of the vicious organ-trade mafia. Some hospitals are known to have extensive lists of up to 200 poverty-stricken donors at hand. They can easily manage even those donors having rare blood group O, A, B, AB negative. The recipients having uncommon blood group are bound to pay more than others. Some leading hospitals have opened websites for this inhuman business. Most of the times illiterate donors sign the consent form unknowingly. The brutal perpetrators use it as a legal document against the sufferers of the deceitfulness, when they contact police or knock at the doors of the courts for justice after losing their kidney deceptively. The negligible amount received by the donors varies from Rs 30,000-150,000, depending upon their dire need and ignorance. Even this relative pittance is paid to some of the needy donors in instalments of Rs 5,000-10,000. They are kept in the emergency ward for only 12 to 24 hours after depriving them of their precious kidneys, and subsequently they are kicked out of the hospital. They receive least medical care, are given third class treatment and prescribed cheapest drugs during this short stay. Rarely are some rich and kind recipients, who want to thank the donors and pay them personally some additional amount, allowed to do so by the hospital authorities. It happens once in a blue moon that the recipient is able to approach his donor. The greedy merchants sometimes receive that

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additional money from the recipients by deception, which they never pay to the donors. Financial constraints compel the donors to sell their body parts to earn a few pieces of paper. This side of the picture is horribly dark. Most of the donors are the sufferers of bonded kiln labour. Time and again receiving money from the kiln owners for the medicines of their ailing wives or diseased children tightens the noose of the kiln owners around their neck and enslaves them permanently. In order to liberate themselves from the shackles of debt, hoping against hope that their children may not suffer in the same way, they sell their valuable kidneys at a throwaway price. Some are taken to the private hospitals by force by the kiln owners to retrieve their debt by putting up the kidneys of these serfs for sale. Some tradition bound donors have to purchase dowry for the marriage of their daughters while others want to buy a rickshaw or taxi to earn a few pennies to keep their body and soul together due to the back-breaking inflation. Some have to pay the exorbitant college fees, a good deal of examination fees and plenteous tuition charges with an expectation that their children may prove their supportive crutches in old age. Many drug addicts also put their kidneys on the market to purchase drugs. Some ambitious young people with an aspiration of going abroad are encouraged by travel agents to sell their kidneys. The roots of the organ trade are deeply connected with poverty. Most of the recipients are the prosperous people of the country or come from the Middle East, Egypt and India, where there is strict legislation to block the sale of organs. The rich recipients are kept in the intensive care units and private rooms of the hospitals for a fixed duration, whether the patient fully recovers or not. If a non-recovered patient agrees to amend the package to pay more, he is deliberately kept for maximum days to empty his pockets. During his/her hospital stay, carrying out investigations in unreliable laboratories, prescriptions of low quality medicines, especially costly immunity-suppressant drugs, keeping the patient under the care of quacks, are the malicious ways that are adopted to earn utmost profit. It is ironic that the police arrests only those innocent doctors who are on duty in the ICU or wards where the patient is kept after the operation. The dinosaurs and crocodiles of these deleterious dealings are either beyond the reach of the law enforcement agencies due to their links with influential people or they are working hand-in-glove with the relevant authorities. The doctors on duty are very rarely part of the game. They are mostly House Officers and Medical Officers working in government. Although the federal cabinet on Wednesday approved the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance 2007 after taking out the controversial clause regarding compensation for the donors, and appointed an inter-ministerial committee to fine tune the text of the draft law, more needs to be done. The committee has been given eight days to finalise the draft ordinance. Once the draft becomes a law, it must be followed through. There should be no leniency. The real culprits involved in this merciless commercial trade should be brought to book without fear or favour and dealt with iron hands. The government should also take measures to alleviate poverty, which is forcing the teeming millions to sell their body parts, because the lives of these poor people are not worthless!

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