Kidneys on sale

Kidneys on sale!!!

Today police enquiries have revealed that Chennai-based nephrologists Dr. Palani Ravichandran, who was arrested on the charge of running an illegal kidney trade involving over 600 transplants, had amassed over Rs 100 crore. In the inquiry, Mumbai police found out that since 2001 he was into this fraudulent act. He confessed to have done over 600 surgeries and charged between Rs. 15 lakh and Rs. 25 lakh per surgery.

Since the Transplantation of Human Organs Act was adopted by the State in 1995, making trade in human organs illegal but there is fresh evidence to show that kidney commerce is thriving in some Indian states.
The Rs 100 crore kidney business in Punjab came to the notice of the press but, some people points out, it was an open secret for many years.


Indian slum-dwellers who are desperate to pay off their debts are ready to sell their organs and the items for sale are mainly kidneys. Ninty percent of the organ donors live below the poverty line. The kidney donors are often poor young women and for them, selling kidneys is like disposing a piece of jewel to meet an emergency expenditure. After the tsunami, the poverty - striken fisher women from Chennai have started selling their kidneys. According to a press report, about 100,000 Indians require a kidney transplant every year and some two million suffer from serious kidney problems. Globally , the number of individuals on a waiting list to receive a kidney currently exceeds 100,000. The demand is so huge and the kidneys reaches the fatty hands with more money.

The kidneys are in ample supply in India: A single kidney can fetch a sum between USD 700 -1300, and there is a large number of people willing to sell a kidney. The Indian government already tried to pass a law regulating the removal and donation of kidneys as early as 1994. Theoretically, every transplant needs to be approved by a hand-picked panel of doctors and other experts. But the dramatic increase in demand for kidneys leads to more and more organ donations being approved and to the illegal trade. Actually, the organ trade has developed into a veritable export industry. Every year more than 1,000 kidneys from India go abroad -- most of them to Arab countries and attracts many patients from the other countries who needs a renal transplant.


To date, Chennai is a thriving kidney market thus continues to be one of the main centres for live unrelated renal transplantation in India. With an active doctor-broker-patient nexus, has been brought out time and again in the media and by independent investigators since the Transplantation of Human Organs Act was adopted by the State in 1995, making trade in human organs illegal.

The kidney racket had been going on a large scale with a complex network of brokers, doctors and hospitals and many had been cheated and paid less for their kidneys. One G Mittal from Mumbai was promised Rs 4 lakh for his kidney but was given just Rs 25,000. He had lodged a complaint with Mumbai police and on that basis, the police arrested four brokers. Following this, the police came over to Chennai and arrested Dr.Ravichandran. and also with the Income Tax sleuths conducted raids at the doctor's Subasri Nagar residence at Mugaliwakkam, Chennai. They seized important documents pertaining to kidney transplant treatment.

Simultaneously, the Bharathiraja Hospital in places such as T. Nagar and St. Thomas Hospital where the doctor performed the surgeries had been sealed. The Tamilnadu Health Department has also revoked the licence of these hospitals to perform kidney transplant. Health professionals and activists must raise public awareness to promote cadaveric transplant programmes, and prevent the illegal organ trade.

"The major issue as far as India is concerned is getting rid of the brokers. This would mean government regulation or administration of any compensation policy that would be developed,"- transplant News - editor Jim Warren