Organ trade

While the Punjab police have successfully managed to apprehend those allegedly involved in the harrowing Hafizabad spinal fluid extraction case, the arrests have only highlighted that Pakistan has a serious problem with illegal organ trade. The case has highlighted the terrible lack of protections available to patients and the poor in this country. A young girl’s spinal fluid was removed illegally while at a hospital in Hafizabad. The gang involved was able to pose as employees at the DHQ and had told the victim that the samples were necessary to qualify her for the Punjab government’s dowry fund. The actual procedure was performed inside a private residence but the question still remains: was the gang operating illegally right under the noses of the hospital administration or did it have unofficial sanction from hospital authorities? Since then, almost six cases have been filed against the accused who have admitted to have performed the extraction on 92 girls. Organ trade became illegal in Pakistan in the early 2000s but has gone on unchecked, with those involved enticing the poorest segments of society with promises of money. One part of Punjab – central to northern – is already known as the kidney trade belt but there has been little official action against those responsible. The FIA conducted two raids in Lahore and Multan last year, but this is certainly nowhere near enough as illegal organ trade has continued to operate unchecked. With doctors at public hospitals involved, the recent arrests have only confirmed how high the chain goes when it comes to the illegal organ trade.

The first case of this kind was reported in April last year when two foreigners were found waiting for transplants from organ donors in the middle of surgery. This was a clear case of medical tourism where foreigners and locals were lured to trade organs for a steep profit. Similar raids were made in Multan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the World Health Organisation, over 10,000 illegal organ extractions occur in Pakistan each year; that comes to more than one every hour. Patients pay up to $200,000 dollars for kidneys, where donors at paid as little as $1,500. The spinal fluid case is a stranger one. Spinal fluid is used for medical diagnosis. It is also reported that it could be sold to traditional healers. With the global demand for organ transplants far exceeding the supply, the space for illegal organ trade has increased in a context where global poverty has reached crippling levels. There are over 100,000 organ transplants performed in the world each year, both legal and illegal, but the global demand is 10 times this number. The larger problem is that the number of legal organ donations remains low. Few people, especially in the third world, are signed up as organ donors after death. In such a context, illegal organ trade has become a multi-million dollar global business. This is a terrifying situation. The Hafizabad case must be a turning point; the government must take serious action against this practice.