The Tale of the Kidney Thieves

A poor man finding ways to clear off debts, a rich and ill man looking for an organ transplantation—a sight commonly seen. And the very important character of this tale is the so called “broker” who arranges the meeting between the two distressed persons. But on a very serious note, is selling off organs to earn money or pay off debts etc acceptable?

Many vital organs that can be transplanted are- the heart, the kidneys, the liver, the intestines, the eyes etc. An organ donor is preferably the relatives of the sick person. But unfortunately in most cases you won’t find willing relatives, leaving the only choice to turn to the strangers-- strangers that are poor and are willing to “sell” the organs at very cheap rates. What a bargain!

And the kidneys seem to have topped the list of the illegal trade of organs. Some laws in some countries allow the donors to be paid for their donations as they believe that paying to the donors would increase the number of donors. On the other hand, some laws in some countries do not allow the donors to be paid and believe that the donor should be willing to donate out of “affection”. No matter what the laws are, the main concern for the ailing person is to arrange for the organ at affordable prices. And this organ trade market has been on an increase.

We hear tales of people going out to parties and mysteriously finding themselves the next day in an unknown place with a lot of pain in the back. Reality strikes them hard when they come to know the fact that they had been drugged and robbed of one of their kidneys and that too in a very professional manner. Poor people are exploited and lured by the brokers to give away one of their kidneys and get financial help. These poor people finding hope in this bargain sell their kidneys and very soon again land up in the pool of heavy debts. Such rackets are huge and come to light if only the victims lodge a complaint. What more, the professionals from the medical field are the kingpins of such rackets and are wealthy enough (obviously!) to avoid any suspicions aroused at them. For instance, one of the largest kidney-rackets of India that was busted created headlines for being internationally branched out. The racket was owned by Dr. Amit Kumar of India who had a huge circle of international doctors as his partners in crime. The Interpol had to be alerted to find him out when he went missing.

A lot of victims, mostly the poor, don’t come out to complain against such kidney thieves and such heinous crimes go unnoticed. On the other hand, they flourish and expand and increase their circles. And it becomes really difficult to nab these criminals. But we can still fight it. The government must come up with laws and regulations to enforce supervisions on such issues. And the poor need to be educated of the risks involved. They must be made aware to the fact that the money “earned” by selling kidneys can suffice for a short period of time and such are not the solutions to fight poverty. Their woes may increase later in their lives when they start facing health problems due to the absence of one kidney. The poor are just tested by the “doctor-thieves” as to whether they are healthy are not but they aren’t tested for any problems that they might have to face in the future.

It’s is very ethical and moral to donate kidneys or for that matter any organ of your body only if you do it out of compassion and affection. If not, they can atleast donate blood too blood banks or needy persons. If killing one person is like killing the entire humanity, then saving one person’s life is definitely like saving the entire humanity.