India: The Big Bazaar of Organ Trade

The uncovering of an illegal organ racket in a suburb of New Delhi earlier this year brought one of the dark sides of medical tourism to light. As Nikhila M. Vijay from India reports, the most lucrative clients of this racket were foreigners. The kingpin of the racket, Amit Kumar, and his accomplices had duped or forced hundreds of poor labourers to "donate" kidneys to wealthy clients, many of them foreigners.

Only rich Indians or foreigners can afford kidneys that have been purchased illegally from the poor, who may have given them at their own free will or not. As the Indian Government and tourism enterprises have also started to promote medical tourism in the country, including organ transplants, the international demand for Indian kidneys is likely to increase, and so is the exploitation of the poor in India by the global upper class.