India to legalise kidney sale to help poor donors

Time to legalise kidney sale to help poor donors Laxmi Kanta Chawla

A few months back, a young man, crying with pain, came to my office. At first, it appeared as if he was begging. But later it turned out that he was neither a patient nor a beggar. Someone had removed his kidney after completing the legal formalities.

In the process, he was duped and reduced to a crippled person. All this was done right under the nose of the guardians of the law! For some inexplicable reasons, the Human Rights Commission did not come forward to help him.

He had come from Bihar to Punjab in search of a job, and had landed in Amritsar, which is well known for its holy temples, free lunches and subsidised dharmashalas. Some businessmen came forward to help him.

He was made to understand that he could get Rs one lakh by parting with one of his two kidneys and was buttured that there would be no charges for his treatment. He agreed and the kidney was removed. However, he got only Rs 37,000, and that too did not remain with him. Some musclemen of the kidney traders thrashed him and snatched away the money.

No post-operation treatment was given to him. He was threatened with dire consequences if he revealed this to anyone. This is the story of a man who in the prime of his youth was transformed into an old, disabled person, thanks to the greedy kidney traders and surgeons.

What surprised me much more was his apprehension that he could be arrested. I failed to understand at that time why should he be afraid of the police at all? Then I realised that he could be charged with the crime of selling human organs or with attempting dissolution and put behind the bars with none to arrange for a bail, a lawyer or to fight his case.

I now realise why the victim was afraid of the guardians of the law! In the British system, the goddess of justice has been portrayed with a set of scales in her hand and a black band over her eyes. It symbolises fairness of justice in which the judgement is given to the victims in an even-handed manner after balancing truth and falsehood in a scale and without succumbing to any pressure or temptation.

From my experience in India, I am convinced that as long as a black band covers the eyes of the goddess of justice, no victim can get justice. With her eyes closed, the goddess of justice will never be able to see how certain people are often present in the court as ãhiredä or professionalä witnesses.

The black band suggests that justice should be imparted fairly. But two separate items on both sides of the scales cannot be valued only according to their weight. Gold will have to be valued differently from iron even if they are of identical weight.

Speedy justice is a mirage today. For instance, seven youth in Amritsar jail remained in custody for 17 months. Thereafter, they have been serving the jail terms towards the punishment awarded to them. The court took 17 months to decide their cases and then punished them for two years. In addition, they were fined Rs 10,000 each. Since none of them is capable of paying the fine, they will have to undergo an additional jail term for six months.

The people who have no money to engage lawyers, buy or hire witnesses and arrange for bail, those who are poor and insecure, should be allowed to remain in jail before their cases are decided, or after their jail terms are over. If such a law could be enacted for the hapless lot, they can stay in the jail and have food, clothes, shelter, free medical facilities and some wages too for their hard work in the jail.

Reverting to the issue in question, the person who sold his kidney apparently belongs to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. Otherwise, having come all the way from his home town, he would not have dispensed with his kidney. The rich buyer of the kidney did not even bother to ascertain whether the cost of the kidney reached the seller so that the latter could get proper treatment.

The Amritsar police deserves credit for having exposed the kidney scandal. The news instantly hit the newspaper headlines. However, when they were hauling the criminals, the big fish escaped and the small and weak ones were caught. Seven such helpless people are now in jail. These criminals are really the kidney-losers with cut-up bellies who can neither afford treatment nor go to the court because they are below the poverty line.

I would like to appeal to legal luminaries, intellectuals, the Medical Council of India and others to investigate how many kidneys have been transplanted in the last 18 months after removing them from the poor donors, whether the kidney-donors were paid the cost of their kidneys and how many donors were cheated of the promised money.

To check the exploitation of poor donors, kidney sale should be legalised so that the sellers or ãdonorsä of kidneys are paid a fixed amount either before a court of law or a medical committee. This will ensure that kidney buyers meet the treatment cost of the donors. The person receiving the money should be sent to his village with police protection. The buyer should settle in advance the cost of treatment and other expenses of the donor. He could be paid money by a crossed DD payable at the bank near his residence. This is bound to minimise the hardship of the poor and eliminate middlemen who fleece both the buyer and the seller of the kidneys.

It would be better if the Supreme Court or the National Human Rights Commission forms a special committee to find out how many real (fake?) affidavits were taken from the kidney donors. If a little further inquiry is done, it might be found out that in 90 per cent cases, the kidney receivers would not even know the names and addresses of the kidney donors, because the latter might have already left for their homes, or might have been thoroughly thrashed or sent to jail where they might be cursing their fate in having been deprived of everything ÷ their kidneys, money, health and even the normal routine life.