The Hippocratic Curse

The earthquake in Pakistan claimed over one lakh lives and left thousands destitute and homeless. It is these hapless survivors of nature’s fury who are being exploited by ‘human organ brokers’. Poverty-stricken, the people in the quake-affected areas seem to be quite easily lured to sell their kidneys by middlemen working on behalf of unscrupulous private clinics. The post-quake scenario has added a new dimension to the already shocking trade in human organs in Pakistan.

Although the federal health minister of Pakistan, Naseer Muhammad Khan, recently pledged that he would ensure the practice of human organs trade is banished, it goes on unchecked. "The sale of human organs has become a global issue and the government will move a bill to ban this unethical practice in the next national assembly (NA) session," Khan had stated. According to him, the NA had debated the issue and would unanimously ban the sale of human organs. "Rich people, mostly from the Middle East and western nations, come to Pakistan to buy kidneys of the poor. The practice gives a bad name to Pakistan and stigmatises our society," he added.

The hospitals infamous for kidney transplants in Lahore are Masood Hospital, Rasheed Hospital and Sharif Medical Complex. There are numerous cases of kidney donors selling their organs to the highest bidder. But doctors in these hospitals claim they are in no way directly responsible. Says Dr Ahsan Masood of the Masood Hospital: "The hospital does not benefit out of the whole package as the fee of the donor is discussed and finalised by the recipient and the donor themselves. What we are doing is just a two-way job that benefits both the parties: it gives a new lease to the patient and money to the needy." But not everyone agrees with this view. Dr Asim Hameed, another senior doctor, considers unrelated donor transplants exploitative. "Not only is the practice unethical but also immoral," he says.

Immoral it might be, but illegal it is not since there is a lack of legislation against donor transplants in Pakistan. Each transplant makes the hospitals richer by $7,500 (about Rs 3.37 lakh) to $10,000 (about Rs 4.5 lakh). The donor gets anything up to Rs 1 lakh depending on how good he or she is at haggling. A big part of the donor’s money goes to the middlemen.

About ten transplants are done every month at the Masood Hospital. And the business is very lucrative. Most of the patients are from the US, the UK and the Middle East. Of late Indians too have begun to come to Pakistan. The Sharif Medical Complex in Raiwind near Lahore, for instance, owned by former prime minister of Pakistan and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Nawaz Sharif, is a favourite among patients coming from theUAE.

In Pakistan, the issue of unrelated donor transplants has only reached the discussion stage while in other countries there is a set of legalities involved before an organ can be donated. Recipients of kidneys say that provided the donor is willingly donating his kidney there is nothing wrong with it. Points out 42-year-old Riaz Ahmed, who had a transplant done at the Rasheed hospital: "Any practice I believe that is done in order to save another person’s life cannot be categorised as illegal or unethical. After all, it is not stealing, rather the donor is fully aware when he offers his kidney for a fee that is suitable to him." Of course, this is also a line that many nephrologists like to take.