Unfortnately, this isn't the plot from a bad horror movie
There's a story in NYT today about an illegal transplant operation just outside New Delhi that's been forcing people to "donate" their kidneys:
As the anesthetic wore off, Naseem Mohammed said, he felt an acute pain in the lower left side of his abdomen. Fighting drowsiness, he fumbled beneath the unfamiliar folds of a green medical gown and traced his fingers over a bandage attached with surgical tape. An armed guard by the door told him that his kidney had been removed.
Mr. Mohammed was the last of about 500 Indians whose kidneys were removed by a team of doctors running an illegal transplant operation, supplying kidneys to rich Indians and foreigners, police officials said. A few hours after his operation last Thursday, the police raided the clinic and moved him to a government hospital.
Many of the donors were day laborers, like Mr. Mohammed, picked up from the streets with the offer of work, driven to a well-equipped private clinic, and duped or forced at gunpoint to undergo operations. Others were bicycle rickshaw drivers and impoverished farmers who were persuaded to sell their organs, which is illegal in India.
-Greg Dahlmann
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The kidney trade in India and other areas of Asia have long been operating with immunity. The theft of organs from unsuspecting poor residents of these countries has been exposed by numerous NGO, the UN, and the WHO. The media frenzy we are seeing now is only as a result of the Indian Government cracking down.
This enforcement effort is good. It should have come years ago.
- by rfhicey on Jan 30, 2008 at 4:53 PM | link