Yet he boasts of having already arranged more than 70 kidney transplants, and maintaining a list of 50 donors awaiting their turn. He even promises receipts. Selvam is a leading figure in the thriving Indian trade in illegal kidneys. About 37,500 people a year suffer from kidney failure in India. The vast majority have little chance of getting proper treatment.
Dialysis is expensive and difficult because of the country s shortage of equipment.
To get a replacement kidney, patients must either find somebody willing to part with one of theirs or get one transplanted from a donor who has just died. And where they are legal, the operations require sophisticated equipment and highly-trained personnel to carry out the switch within 24 hours. Even where these conditions are available, Indian law adds a further obstacle. Unlike some countries, where a person may be declared clinically dead when the brain stops functioning, Indian doctors are only allowed to certify death when the heart has stopped beating. The result is a big demand for donated kidneys - which agents have been quick to turn into lucrative trade.