March 7, 2007
FW: Pakistani man sells wife’s kidney to buy tractor
KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistani police have arrested two men after a village woman complained that her husband and relatives had sold one of her kidneys in order to buy a tractor, police said on Tuesday.
Although her kidney had been removed 18 months earlier, the woman, named Safia, only learnt it was missing after seeking treatment for a urinary tract problem in January.
“She has said that she was three months pregnant when her husband, Shakeel Ahmed beat her and then took her to the hospital for treatment,” said Mohammad Akram, duty officer at Noushera Jadeed police station in Punjab province.
“But at the hospital her husband, in connivance with three other people, sold her kidney to buy the tractor,” he said.
Unlike many other parts of the world, including neighbouring India, there is no law in Pakistan banning the trade in organs.
Poverty-ridden Pakistanis living in rural areas sell their kidneys to pay off debts or raise money for their families.
Sick but wealthy Pakistanis, and foreigners from the Gulf, Britain and Canada flock to private hospitals in Pakistan for kidney transplants, made possible by these donors.
Two of the woman’s relatives had been arrested in a village west of Bahawalpur, but investigating officer Mohammad Farrukh said the husband had obtained bail.
Police had yet to establish how much the man raised from the sale of the kidney, Farrukh said
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