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Alleged kidney racket: SDSG tells court victims promised payments, but not briefed on health issues
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
Police claim investigations into an alleged organ-transplant racket centering a private hospital indicate that the persons who are alleged to have been tricked to donate their kidneys had not been briefed on health issues.
Senior Deputy Solicitor General (SDSG) Dileepa Peiris told Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court that those behind the scam had targeted people from poverty-stricken families, only telling them about the huge payment they would receive for donating a kidney.
The SDSG claimed that the scam was carried out with the full knowledge of the doctors, staff, and administrators of Western Hospital in Borella. He said the kidneys had been obtained by using brokers who would promise the victims payments ranging from Rs 5 million to Rs 12 million for a kidney. The kidneys were given to local and foreign patients.
SDSG Peiris also told court that the hospital had failed to comply with the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s order directing the hospital to hand over to the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) originals of folders and documents containing information of those who performed transplant surgeries and information on donors.
He said investigations were ongoing to ascertain whether the hospital had complied with provisions of the Transplantation of Human Tissues Act No. 48 of 1987 when conducting kidney transplants.
There was no doubt that the entire scheme was a human organ racket, SDSG Peiris alleged, and added that donors had not been briefed on how donating a kidney impacted their health.
Moreover, the donors had not been paid the full amount they had been promised. The alleged 41-year-old suspect who acted as a broker has been arrested and is now in remand custody while the court has slapped an overseas travel ban on hospital directors.
So far, five persons have lodged police complaints claiming that they had not received the payments promised to them for donating a kidney.
| Western Hospital rejects allegation, says it follows proper procedure Issuing a media statement, Western Hospital, Borella denied involvement in any organ trafficking scam. “Western Hospital in no circumstances has been involved, nor would we ever be involved in any manner whatsoever in ‘organ trafficking’ or the ‘smuggling of organ.’ The Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) has now arrested what it terms a ‘main suspect.’ We hope the investigations would soon reveal the truth into the claims reported by the media,” the statement stressed. The statement alleged there is a “deliberate and concerted attempt to implicate the hospital.” It added that there is a stringent procedure by which consent is obtained from a donor and no donor’s organs are taken against his or her will. The process involves a comprehensive interview with an independent committee, the hospital said. Following this, there is also a three-tier process by which the Health Ministry grants approval. Donors must comply with rigorous legal requirements prior to agreeing to donate their organs. Donors can also revoke their consent at any time prior to the transplant including whilst on the way to the surgery. “Five other private hospitals conduct kidney transplants in the island and each and every one of them follows the same procedures we follow,” the statement said. | |
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