The recent introduction of a new biometric patient ID verification system for donors and patients of organ transplant is a welcome move as it will help control the illegal trade in organ transplant and sale of human organs like kidney etc. 

The news system will be in vogue in hospitals across the country and it is quite in line with the requirement of new age which promises digital solutions to various health issues.

As first step, the NADRA officials have signed an accord with reputed Shifa International Hospital to verify the identity of the donors as also the patients receiving the organ transplant.

The sale of kidneys is going on unabated while the same is forbidden under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 2010 and hence this latest biometric system can help control this aspect of the organ trade as well.

Our country is replete with the illegal trade of organ selling and is also known for transplant tourism at international level for the organ trafficking to a number of countries including the Arab rich states by illegal gangs of unethical doctors and their facilitators.

It may be mentioned here that that there was a marked decrease in cases of illegal transplants of human organs in recent years but once again the organizations and authorities working against this illegal trade have come up with statements indicating that the trade is still going on, though not as rampant as few years back.

Recently, the police founder a missing boy in an underground laboratory  unearthed  an organ trafficking ring in Rawalpindi and in this way was successful in busting a human organ trafficking ring, which was found to be involved poor  and young needy people with heavy purse for selling their kidneys for around nine lakh Pak rupees per kidney. And it has also been discovered that most of the buyers are foreigners particularly the rich Arab countries.

Pakistan outlawed the commercial trade in human organs in 2010, imposing a jail term of up to 10 years and fines in the hope of curbing the sale of organs to rich overseas clients by middlemen through exploitative means.

In August 2021, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested an organized gang involved in illegally performing a lung transplant surgeries. The gang consisting of a doctor involved in carrying out the lung transplant, two of his assistants and an agent had sold out the lung of the donor in Rs3.6 million, but the donor could not survive due to unsuccessful operation and after taking out of the organ. His body was recovered from near hospital in Punjab.

The same year, daughter of noted artiste Umer Sharif (late) succumbed to complications arising out after an illegal kidney transplant in Lahore.

Son of Umar Sharif then lodged a complaint with FIA alleging that one Dr Fawad had charged Rs3.4 million from them for the kidney transplant. As reported, the operation was carried out an undisclosed place in AJK where his sister developed serious complications a week after the transplant was carried out and she eventually died. All the above-mentioned three incidents took place in Punjab where the illegal trade is on rise once again.

Recently, a media report quoting sources of Pakistan Transplant Society (PTS) president, said  fifty per cent of renal transplants are being done illegally in country.

The PTS president was quoted to have said that on the average one thousand renal  transplants are carried out annually in the country and of them 500 or 50 per cent are illegal.

These recent developments are suffice to show that the organ trafficking gangs are making a bid to stage their come back.

It may be mentioned here that Punjab was the hub of illegal transplants some years back but due to continued action and raids by the FIA since 2017 a number of rackets and rings were apprehended due to which the illegal trade registered a noticeable decrease. As a matter of fact, unscrupulous elements always make a bid to find ways to keep their lucrative gangs and businesses alive, so there is a need for continued vigilance and only a consistent campaign against them to stop them from making a revival. The irony is that our criminal justice system is marked by loopholes and laxity  due to which the criminal rackets like the organ trade rings take benefit of the situation and they come up with new tactics to resume their heinous trade.

As the kidney ailments are on the rise and the number of patients who need donors is running in thousands but this does not mean to opt for illegal trade,

The only way out is to promote the culture and practices of legal donors i.e, braindead (deceased) donors.

As a matter of fact, a stage comes when a kidney or other patient reaches an end stage of organ failure and in such a situation when there are no family donors to help him, the family of the patients fall prey to the tactics of illegal trade rackets, who sell them organs at high prices and carry out the transplant in illegal way, which is also dangerous and can take toll on lives of the sellers of organs. An estimated 150,000 patients die from organ failure in the country every year, Now this is a huge number which shows that plight of the kidney patients needs to be highlighted on priority basis so that they do not fall prey to illegal organ trade rackets.

According to SIUT sources, there have been very few transplants with the help of deceased organ donations in the country’s biggest kidney facility, obviously due to lack of deceased donors.  On the other hand, the number of transplants performed with the help of living donors at the SIUT runs into thousands, so one can mark the difference.

The irony is that our religious scholars have not been engaged in creating awareness about the deceased donors as majority of people avoid deceased donors practices as they think that it is against the religious norms.

The authorities need to highlight the religious perspective on deceased (brain dead) organ donations so that every patients in need of organ transplant is able to receive the gift of life. The deceased organ donation programme is being  practiced all over the Muslim world except Pakistan, where we need to highlight the Islamic perspective of deceased donors on social media which can play a pivotal role in creating awareness about this important issue.

Published in The Daily National Courier, February, 14 2023

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