New Delhi, September 2
Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who leaves for London tomorrow, said today that he would urge the British authorities to chalk out a joint plan to combat organ sales after a sting operation in the UK linked them to his home state of Punjab.
A British doctor, Bhagat Singh Makkar, was on Friday found to have acted unprofessionally and irresponsibly in connection with procurement of organs from live donors living in poverty in India.
Britain’s General Medical Council disciplinary committee found that seven allegations against 62-year-old Makkar had been proved after he told an undercover journalist that finding a kidney for a fee would be “no problem’’.
The sale of organs is illegal in Britain under the 1989 Human Organ Transplant Act, 1989 and was also banned in India in 1994.
In another case, a British Sikh patient died during a kidney transplant in Jalandhar, news reports said.
The reported death of 69-year-old Darshan Sandhu, who was a resident of Coventry in the Midlands, at a hospital in Jalandhar will figure in hearings involving a second doctor before the General Medical Council (GMC) in October.
“Procuring organs from live donors has to be dealt with sternly. I am leaving for London tomorrow and will urge the British authorities to chalk out a plan to combat trade in human organs,” Mr
Dhindsa, also Secretary of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said.
The ruling Punjab Congress also called for a high-level probe into organ trade in the wake of Sandhu’s death from infection after he had received a transplant from a live donor for a fee.
Punjab Congress chief H.S. Hanspal said that he urged the state government to crack down on those involved in human organ trade.
“This cannot be overlooked. I request Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to order a high-level probe into such rackets and bring the guilty to book,” Mr Hanspal
said.
