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Kidney racket in Delhi shows rot in the system

As many as 12 doctors and top management are under the scanner.

It is beyond horrific and twists the Hippocratic oath into a pretzel. The fact that so many of Delhi's top doctors, rich by any measure, and enjoying the faith and trust of thousands of lives have been implicated in the country's biggest ever kidney scandal with global ramifications is grotesque.
To have top drawer urologists and other senior medical practitioners involved by name and even arrested with more to follow as per the police bulletin, the shock waves are just being felt. What were they thinking and how did they justify this in their minds? Is it just greed? With 4,000 transplants a year and a waiting list of 8,000, the market is buoyant and offers endless potential for abuse.
Just a few weeks ago suicide by a doctor, who was a victim of caste bullying, had focused attention on the rot in the medical system and the churning out of these demi-gods with no pretension to even basic human values. What do doctors like Deepak Shukla and Ketan Kaushik do to stifle their ethic and look at the money. Is it a total lack of morality or an arrogance that stems from being a doctor coupled with contempt for the poor for they are seen as cannon fodder and of no consequence.
As many as 12 doctors and top management are under the scanner and what is scary about this currently unravelling story is that no one knows how widespread the exploitation was, with each kidney being sold for Dh500,000 and more to foreign clients.
According to the police, other hospitals will be targeted after the first three. More witnesses and victims are expected to come out of the dark and relate their stories. In April this year, the Telengana police busted a similar racket in Hyderabad where 40 unsuspecting victims had gone under the knife for profit. Last month a hospital in Vizag, a city in southern India, was under the scanner for selling kidneys. In 2017, a Mumbai hospital was indicted for the crime of selling human organs. In 2016, it might be recalled that four Indians involved in this racket were ferreted out from Sri Lanka where they had sought refuge.
Even these shock waves are transient in nature because the cynicism over medical business for the lack of a kinder word is now rampant. We know that the code of conduct in doctors vis-à-vis their patients especially in upmarket and urban institutions is totally compromised by management which only centres on the inflation of the bottom line. Horror stories bordering on the bizarre with reference to 'pay now or die on the table' sentiment abound. The affection between patient and doctor is very low. And yet he or she is our only saviour.
What is the most criminal in this sort of expose is that everyone gets painted by the same brush. There are thousands of doctors who break their backs for 20 hours a day, often in appallingly conditions. It is these people who perform yeomen services in villages and towns and even cities and offer pro bono comfort to human suffering without flinching. It is this army of dedicated men and women who are most grievously wounded by the shenanigans and criminality of their peers. In this case their seniors.
Are the laws protection enough? According to Dr Pascoal Carvalho, of the Pontifical Academy for Life, they should be more stringent. As a strident protector of the poor he has spent his life waking up the nation to reality. In 2011, the Indian Parliament okayed the new legislation under the Transplant of Human Organs Act. Sentences now range from five to ten years and fines from Rs2 million to Rs10 million ($45,000 to $220,000). To quote: "The amended law also regulates donations of organs and human tissue between unrelated people. In addition, organs or tissue cannot be removed from mentally challenged, retarded and ill-persons before their death."
But is it enough?
-bikram@khaleejtimes.com