India is searching for a monster who convinced the destitute to sell their kidneys at bargain basement prices and sold them for a huge profit. But the real empowerers of this atrocity are the foreigners who wanted new kidneys and didn’t care who got hurt in the process. From the story:
India has launched an international hunt for a doctor accused of running an illegal clinic that duped between 500 and 600 poor labourers into selling their kidneys and then peddled them to foreign clients...
Police alleged that Dr Kumar used middlemen to entice poor labourers with the promise of jobs worth 150 rupees (about £2) a day, plus food and accommodation, and then offer them money for their kidneys. Those who refused were often drugged and had their kidneys removed without their permission, according to several former “donors”...India banned the trade in human organs in 1994 but non-governmental organisations estimate that 2,000 human kidneys are still sold in India every year.
If organs can be bought and sold, the rich will buy and the destitute will sell. It’s that simple. And there will be horrible people to take advantage of their need. We are entering an era of biological colonialism and it must be stopped.
The only way to effectively stop this is to stifle demand. The time has come to make such purchases illegal and punishable internationally. Desperation over one’s own illness does not justify such exploitive depredations. Stop the demand and the supply issue will resolve itself.