Robbed of kidneys, money and dignity

[Orochi]

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</td> </tr> <tr><td class="content_subtitle" align="left"> Wed, Jan 27, 2010
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Robbed of kidneys, money and dignity <!-- TITLE : end--> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" height="15">

</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3" class="bodytext_10pt"> <!-- CONTENT : start --> A POOR villager from the Cholistan Desert in eastern Pakistan, Mr Amjad Ali, was promised a job and money in exchange for a kidney. That was 10 months ago. Now he's got no job, no money, and one kidney. Slumped on a wooden cot in the compound of his spartan two-room house, he feels weak and is in constant discomfort.

He tells an all-too-common story of how Pakistani organ traffickers prey on poor, ignorant peasants and workers. "They promised me a job and took me to Rawalpindi. They drugged me, made me unconscious for days and cut out my kidney," he said, his voice full of bitterness, as his father wept silently beside him, Reuters reported.

In Sargoda, another impoverished corner of Pakistan, Mr Mohammed Iqbal, 50, is forced into a corner. His landlord has told him to pay up the debts. He was left with stark choices: Sell your children or your kidney. He chose the latter. He has already been for pre-operation tests. The sale will net him between US$1,100 and $1,600 (S$1,540 and S$2,240), CNN reported.

Pakistanis like Mr Ali and Mr Iqbal are not the only ones faced with such a predicament. Many more Pakistanis in the impoverished areas of the country have opted to sell their kidneys, just to make ends meet.


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[Orochi]

'Transplant tourists'

Sick but wealthy Pakistanis and foreigners from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Britain and Canada flock to private hospitals in Pakistan's big cities like Rawalpindi and Lahore for kidney transplants, made possible by donors whose own post-operative welfare is callously neglected, Reuters reported. At one point, there were about 2,000 transplants a year - with 1,500 of them going to what the government said were so-called "transplant tourists", said CNN.

The National Assembly recently unanimously passed a landmark bill to regulate transplants of human organs in the country, making their sale and unauthorised transplant punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Pakistan daily The Dawn reported.Dr Adeeb Rizvi, a surgeon at a state-run hospital for Urology and Transplantation in the southern port city of Karachi, believes the post-operative neglect of donors is the most sickening aspect of the kidney trade.

"The issue is these people don't get proper post-operative medical care and their health suffers rapidly affecting their life," Dr Rizvi told Reuters. Defeated as he sounds, Mr Ali wants the agents who lured him into losing a kidney to pay for ruining his life.His father has taken loan, sold his goats and crockery and even bricks to pay for his son's case to be brought to court. Police have arrested three people for stealing Mr Ali's kidney, but the suspects have documents to defend themselves.