Kidney theft.

[arnisador]

Apparently it's no longer just an urban legend or "torture porn" movie:

Kidney Thefts Shock India

As the anesthetic wore off, Naseem Mohammed said, he felt an acute pain in the lower left side of his abdomen. Fighting drowsiness, he fumbled beneath the unfamiliar folds of a green medical gown and traced his fingers over a bandage attached with surgical tape. An armed guard by the door told him that his kidney had been removed.

Mr. Mohammed was the last of about 500 Indians whose kidneys were removed by a team of doctors running an illegal transplant operation, supplying kidneys to rich Indians and foreigners, police officials said. A few hours after his operation last Thursday, the police raided the clinic and moved him to a government hospital.

Many of the donors were day laborers, like Mr. Mohammed, picked up from the streets with the offer of work, driven to a well-equipped private clinic, and duped or forced at gunpoint to undergo operations.
[...]
Four doctors, five nurses, 20 paramedics, three private hospitals, 10 pathology clinics and five diagnostic centers were involved, Mohinder Lal, the police officer in charge of the investigation, said.

“We suspect around 400 or 500 kidney transplants were done by these doctors over the last nine years,” said Mr. Lal, the Gurgaon police commissioner.

I'm not familiar with Indian law, but this should be a death penalty crime for any medical personnel found involved with it. I have practical (not moral) qualms about the death penalty given the number of Death Row inmates found to be actually innocent via DNA evidence in the U.S., but at least in principle, if you're a physician or nurse and you steal peoples' organs, then I say An eye for an eye...

 

[jks9199]

Apparently it's no longer just an urban legend or "torture porn" movie:

Kidney Thefts Shock India



I'm not familiar with Indian law, but this should be a death penalty crime for any medical personnel found involved with it. I have practical (not moral) qualms about the death penalty given the number of Death Row inmates found to be actually innocent via DNA evidence in the U.S., but at least in principle, if you're a physician or nurse and you steal peoples' organs, then I say An eye for an eye...

Larry Niven foresaw this years ago, with "organlegging" in the Gil the Arm stories.

If I recall correctly, the punishment for an organlegger was pretty simple -- and quite appropriate. They became donors -- at least until there wasn't enough of them left to donate.

Seems kind of like a good idea...

 

[exile]

Larry Niven foresaw this years ago, with "organlegging" in the Gil the Arm stories.

If I recall correctly, the punishment for an organlegger was pretty simple -- and quite appropriate. They became donors -- at least until there wasn't enough of them left to donate.

Seems kind of like a good idea...

I agree. Wasn't that the fate of 'Anubis', one of the major organlegger organization leaders that Gil tracked down? And if I recall correctly, Anubis himself had been rebuilt a few times using stolen organs...

 

[Carol]

India doesn't have the death penalty but it does have citizens that seem to just....disappear....but that's another subject.

Dr. Amit Kumar, or "Dr. Horror" as he's been dubbed in the Indian press, seems to have vanished. The Hindustan Times said he may be in Canada. Times of India says he may be in Nepal, while another Times article said he simply "melted in to darkness",


Personally I'm a little disturbed at how the news sources are surpressing the names of the private hospitals that facilitated this "trade".

 

[Makalakumu]

Don't be so surprised. As the market demands, so shall it receive...

 

[MA-Caver]

Don't be so surprised. As the market demands, so shall it receive...

Particularly if you got those who are willing and capable of paying the top dollar for whatever it is.