THE Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 2010, made any commercial activity involving human organs illegal, and limited organ donations to immediate relatives. However, illegal networks continue running theirnefarious trade.
In 2023, Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority and Rawalpindi police raided a private hospital, arrested 10 people,includingthree doctors, and recovered Rs20 million in cash. Later that year, police broke up a ring that was being run by a doctor and a mechanic, who had togethercarried out 328illegalkidney transplants, selling organs for up to Rs10 million each.
Some of the patients did not even know that surgery had been performed on them.
Senate has also heard allegations that some doctors at one ofthe country’s largest public-sector hospitals arranged donors and transplants for over a million rupees. The pattern remains unchanged: a poor donor lured by cash, a wealthy recipient paying a large sum, and hospital staff, sometimeslow-level employees like security guards or technicians rather than physicians, directly acting as the go-between. Part of the system meant to serve the poor is making profit off their desperation.
Raids happen, then things go quiet again.
What is needed is regular, unannounced audits of transplant units, real protection for staff who report wrongdoing, and consequences for hospitals that let this kind of secrecy and criminal activity continue.
Om Parkash Gambat