Who can stop the trade in kidneys?

last updated 8 January 2015

Pakistan

Editorial

Kidney theft is not an urban myth, said the Karachi Dawn in an editorial. Just ask Mohammad Amjad. He is one of a growing number of patients who have had a healthy kidney removed during an operation for a different ailment. Granted, most kidneys transplanted in Pakistan were bought, not stolen—but that’s a problem in itself. It is the poorest of the poor, deeply in debt to their employers, who are willing to part with a kidney for as little as $1,000. The money is quickly gone, and the debt returns as fast. “Many, especially those with a weak constitution, have lived to regret their decision.” A few have died. Lawmakers have tried several times to bring legislation that would ban the sale of organs. But bill after bill dies in committee because of the “influence of unscrupulous individuals and doctors” who have grown rich from this “nefarious trade.” The longer these doctors go unpunished, the more likely they are to join those who simply help themselves to a kidney whenever they scrub up.