In the aftermath of the tsunami, kidneys are sold to pay off debts
Mumbai (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The sale of organs to settle debts, illegal trafficking, poverty and corruption: this is the sad situation of post-tsunami India. Those concerned about the state of health in India estimated that each year 4,500 kidneys are harvested, of these almost 2/3 originates from the illegal organ trade: in order to pay off their debts the countries poorest find themselves at the mercy of organ traffickers.
The harvesting of organs is illegal in India that is why most traffickers declare the donor a relative of the patient.
The illegal trade forced the Federal Government to introduce a law regarding the harvesting of human organs, (The Transplant of Human Organs Act or Thoa) in order to control the transplanting of all organs. All states set up commissions to regulate and enforce the law, who authorize transplants (Transplant authorisation commission). Without said authorization, no relative or friend can donate a kidney. But the increase of illegal kidney harvesting in Chennai over the last ten years underscores the failure of the commissions to impose the law.
Palanisamy Muthupandian, an executive of the Chennai based Ngo Community Health Education Society (CHES), said that “In the past 13 years in Tamil Nadu since the THAO came into force. 8,000 kidneys have been donated and at least 65 per cent of them are from poor unrelated donors who sold their kidneys because they were in disparate need of money”. “When organ brokers found that the commission would sometimes block donations because they were not convinced that the donors were related to the patient - adds Palanisamy Muthupandian – they began forging identity documents to present unrelated donors as blood relatives”.
Sweeping the broken pavement of her ramshackle shop on the outskirts of a Chennai slum, a 27 year old mother tells her story: “Nothing has changed; I’m still struggling to make a living now as I did before I sold my kidney. I cannot afford to travel by bus. I need to walk 8 miles every day to run this shop”. Revathy’s story is one of loss and desperation, but it is just one of many: abandoned by her husband, her home destroyed by the 2004 tsunami. The woman and her two children received a shack and a small monetary contribution from the government. Soon however Revathy found herself in serious debt and had to ask for loans.
It was then that she met a woman, a kidney broker who lives in a nearby slum – named Shanthi. Shanthi suggested Revathy sell one of her kidneys, just as Shanthi had done years before to meet the costs of her daughter’s marriage. She told Revathy “use 75% of the money to clear your debt, and with the rest open a small shop to save your family from hunger and death”. Thus in June last year in Chennais Kaliappa hospital, Revathy’s right kidney was removed and sold to a 47-year-old Chennai businessman suffering from irreversible kidney failure. For her kidney she received 50thousand rupees.
When Revathy’s case was reported to authorities, health officials discovered that in the village of Ernavur 20 km from Chennai, over 100 cases where the fishermen and their families had sold their kidneys. Maria Selvam, head of the Ernavur fisherman’s association said “98% of the people who sell their kidneys are women”. “The fishermen are used to living closet o their boats but we have been provided with housing ten kilometres from the port. People can’t get to work and so the end up pushing their family into hardship. If the men don’t work the women have to find the money. Finding themselves in desperate situations they sell their kidneys”.
The increased number of reported incidents in this trade has forced police to step up prevention measures. A Chennai official referred that because of this week’s crack down on kidney harvesting in Tamil Nadu, the trade has slightly decreased.
Some people sustain however, that selling ones organs for money – as long as the donor’s life is not at risk – is not wrong and that the best way to stop the illegal trading in organs is to legalize it. According to Pinakapani Manorama, a Chennai doctor who helps Ches, if the trade was legalized the meeting between who donates and who receives the organ could take place in the light of day and the donor could receive greater benefits.
The story of another woman, Chithra (38 years old) ex prostitute, highlights other factors of the problem. Chithra sold her kidney six years ago and is now an organ broker in the illegal organ trade. “When my husband died seven years ago – the woman tells – with my two little daughters I got into deep financial trouble. Then a friend introduced me into the job of entertaining men in hotels”. “But a few years later, the broker who had sold my kidney for a patient offered me the opportunity to work for his network. In the past four years I have helped more than 30 patients get kidneys. Normally it doesn’t take me more than a week to find a donor, and for the most part they are women whose husbands are either alcoholics or dead”. “From one deal I generally get between 15,000 and 20,000 rupees – the woman says – my boss keeps three times as much as his share. Police has started chasing brokers. But it will not affect our business much. The only hitch is that we have to start sharing part of our income with them now”.
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03/01/2005
