Sale of kidneys

[IMTIAZ AHMAD KHAN]

Severe poverty has forced a large number of villagers in rural areas of Punjab specially Sargodha division districts to sell their kidneys to private individuals or hospitals. According to a report, the trade in human organs has been flourishing in the country, with more than 200 such cases coming to light in recent months and it is being run on professional and modern fraudulent techniques.

Doctors say that this practice is common in many other parts of the country. While the average market price for a kidney is about 10-15 lake rupees, most donors are exploited by senseless middle-men who skin off a large part of the amount. However, if poverty is forcing an increasing number of people to take this drastic step, it is the lock of a legal framework for kidney donation and transplants that is the root of the problem. The law, as it stands, in Pakistan today only allow for live donors and transplants from living person with their written consent in this regard. Every year some 10,000 people develop end-stage renal disease in Pakistan which requires a kidney transplant or prolonged and expensive bouts of dialysis to keep the patient alive.

There is, however, a large gap between the donors and the organ-requires.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are the only countries in the region that do not have a law formed on this subject. In India, where all kinds of horrifying stories of forced donation had merged, cadaver donations have been legalized ,reducing the exploitation of poor, compared to this thousands of people in Pakistan continues to die every year, due to lack of donors.

it is the worst conditions of the morality of the people of the sub-continent that defame their countries in the outer world circles. The kidney transplant mafia work on modern, scientific organized marketing manners in the sequence of which, some great scandals were reported in India in this regard which is blasphemous.



The government and media should launch a campaign against illegal and alleged kidney sale and the authorities should make special laws in this regard to alleviate kidney sale on business grounds other than need-base.

[Muhammad T S Awan]

AoA

i). Perhaps a couple of years ago, the issue had been limelighted at a news channel and at various levels of government machinery when scores of kidney donations were found at a village near Sargodha city.

ii). Thereafter the Supreme Court had started hearings on it and asked government /ministry of health to make some legislation on donation of organs (kidneys etc ). The matter was under consideration at Bench-I i.e. of honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan. One of such hearing was during the time when the Parliament had passed a Bill relating to contempt of court by the parliamentarians/provincial assembly members and the apex court had asked the senior officer from health ministry to expedite legislation on this matter and his reply was, legislation is a time taking matter and they have sought comments from all provincial governments/stake holders etc etc and one of honourable judge had commented that when parliament /government has to make a law, they make it in 5-6 hours and when they dont want to , then they kept a delay policy etc ...

You may like to have a look at some newspapers/supreme court website about the issue, however, i fear that nothing substantial has been made on this critical issue because of busyness of Parliament/government on other very important issues.

Regards

[Taimoor Gondal]

Originally Posted by Muhammad T S Awan

AoA

i). Perhaps a couple of years ago, the issue had been limelighted at a news channel and at various levels of government machinery when scores of kidney donations were found at a village near Sargodha city.

yes this issue had been limelighted a couple of years ago at express news in program ''Koi dekhe na dekhe shabbir to dekhe ga'' and as for as I am remembring the name of village was Bucha Kalan in sargodha district.

Most of the kidney selling persons interviewed in that program were contract employees (seeri, mulazim, ghulam in local language). They have taken loan of perhaps 50000 or 1 lac and in return they were serving the person from whome they have taken loan. And to return that loan they sell their kidneys.

As they have to work for whole day and their salary is about 2000-3000 per month. So to pay back the loan of 1 lac they have to serve for more then 3 years.