The organ trade

The first successful kidney transplant was in December 1954 and within a year of that the first transplant reports, sketchy at first, emerged of kidneys being traded. Today organ transplants are common, often successful and do much to improve the quality of life for a range of patients. Also common is the sale of healthy organs by people so poor that they will consider trading their body parts. In Pakistan, the illegal sale of organs, particularly kidneys, is long-established.

Despite being illegal the trade enjoys the patronage and support of sometimes influential figures. A gang was recently caught by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Pir Mahal and Toba Tek Singh. People had been posing as ‘doctors’ and removed kidneys in unsafe and unsterile conditions. At least one of the group is closely related to a former governor of Punjab and he is a fugitive. Whether he will ever face the courts is an open question given his connections. There is support for the activity from doctors who operate completely legally, they will remove the diseased patients organ and replace it with a traded organ. The recipients are wealthy and frequently come from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or the Emirates.

In the developed world such practices are rare, in large part because there are organ donation schemes where individuals willingly and for free donate their organs after death. There is no stigma attached to this and no cultural barrier. Governments support the schemes and everybody benefits. There is no reason why such systems should not be adopted in Pakistan but this will require significant political support that is cross-party and uniform, a circumstance that in the current state of political churn is unlikely to be forthcoming. People sell their organs out of poverty and desperation and there are numerous records both anecdotal and sourced that point to bonded labour forces as being the origin of many of the organs for sale. So long as there is money to be made — and a lot of money is being made — the poor will continue to be exploited.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2018.

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