Pakistan's kidney bazaar
Posted: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 10:53 AM
Filed Under:
Islamabad, Pakistan
By NBC News' Fakhar Rehman and Carol Grisanti
LAHORE, Pakistan –
It was a question of honor.
Tariq Masih’s father owed $500 and couldn’t pay it back. "Every day someone would come and ask for the money, it was insulting and humiliating for me," Masih said.
"One day I couldn’t take it anymore and went to the hospital and arranged to sell my left kidney to pay my father’s debts."
A wealthy Saudi businessman paid $3,000 for Masih’s kidney. "I am keeping it a secret from my wife and my mother," said the 25-year-old brick kiln worker.
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| Carol Grisanti / NBC News |
| Tariq Masih shows the scar from where his kidney was removed. He sold it for $3,000 to pay his father's debts. |
Pakistan is one of the top countries in the world for "transplant tourism." It has been dubbed the "Kidney Bazaar" by the media with Lahore, the second-largest city, regarded as its hub.
"Nearly 2,000 kidneys are transplanted in Pakistan every year and 70 percent are bought by foreigners from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Britain and Canada," said Dr. Zafar ul Ahsan, the top urologist at the Fatima Jinnah Hospital in Lahore.
Pakistan is one of the few countries that does not ban organ sales or have any regulations governing them. The Supreme Court took up the matter last month and accused the government of "apathetic procrastination" for failing to pass legislation curbing the practice. The high court wants transplants restricted to blood relations.
Difficult to control
Even with new laws, the market will be difficult to control or shut down. Even Internet sites offer kidneys for sale in Pakistan.
"This new kidney law will only double the rate of corruption in the country," said Hashmat Habib, a Supreme Court lawyer who is familiar with the practice. "Needy people have to sell their organs to survive in Pakistan. The government must concentrate on ways to eradicate poverty and improve the lives of the people."
In addition, there is a widespread criminality. Dr. Ahsan said that in April the authorities in Lahore busted a gang of doctors, officials and middlemen who had been abducting potential donors, drugging them and then removing their kidneys to sell for transplants.
"A mafia is running Pakistan’s kidney transplant business with agents paying $1,000 to poor donors and then selling their kidneys on the black market for thousands of dollars," he said. "Poverty is driving this illegal business."
Debts drive trade
There is a stench from the open sewage in the backstreets of Mominpura, a predominantly Christian neighborhood in Lahore. Children are everywhere: dodging cars, trucks and rickshaws; scuttling past donkey carts piled high with tomatoes, playing cricket and flying " kites" made from plastic shopping bags – a favorite pastime in Lahore.
Masih, a Christian, met us at the entrance of the bazaar and led us down narrow dusty alleys with the smell of spicy cooking, past scraps of debris, rotting food and broken glass until we came to a 7-foot tall dark blue cross painted on a 10-foot high light blue cement wall. Red brick shacks stood on either side of the road – all identical in height and shape except for the different colored doors.
Finally we came to Masih’s house – the one with a yellow door.
"After I paid off my father’s debt, I spent the rest of the money to build this house for my family," he said
We sat in a windowless room of exposed brick walls. Clothes hung carelessly on nails hammered at random into the walls; a bunk bed was shoved into one corner. The door was left open to let in the light – and also the sound of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer at a nearby mosque.
Masih showed us his six-inch zip-like scar. He says he has pain and no longer has the strength to go to work every day. The family will soon have to borrow money again – an elder brother is thinking of selling a kidney.
Thousands of laborers like Masih are believed to have sold kidneys to pay off debts. Demand for organs far exceeds the supply and donors are frequently exploited. Often the money promised is not paid or only partly paid, unskilled surgeons perform the operations and patients cannot afford proper follow-up care. Many patients fall seriously ill and die.
And hundreds of patients have complained that they have unknowingly had a kidney removed while undergoing another type of surgery.
Desperate for a better life
Arshad Billa lives three doors down from Masih in another red brick house with a brown door.
Laundry is hanging everywhere – draped over the brick walls of the outer courtyard and over every piece of furniture inside the house. The main room is cluttered – dishes, pots, pans and objects of every description are scattered everywhere, giving one the feeling of overall squalor. On the walls are more than a dozen pictures of Jesus and Mary.
"I was scared when the doctor told me I could die," said Billa recalling his decision to sell his kidney. "I prayed to Jesus and decided to go ahead with the operation."
"I wanted my children to have a better life. I did it for my children," he said.
