Ruby Hall Clinic kidney transplant case: Transplants will halt if harassment continues, warn doctors associations

“Doctors are being made scapegoats here,” Dr Sunil Shroff, president of the ISOT, said at a press conference, adding that said the laws were already tough but there were no easy solutions to end malpractices. “We need to sit down with authorities and if there is a need for a policeman to come on board and verify identification, so be it. However, enough is enough. Tarnishing doctors’ image is not the solution and hence this is the first time we are raising our voice. Filing an FIR and maligning the image of doctors is not the solution. The law is clear but it is unfortunate that some loose statements are made by the Maharashtra advocate-general on a racket going on between doctors and patients for organ transplants. Time and again, we have seen that doctors are safe targets and there will be a day when due to all this controversy, transplants will come to a halt. This will be very sad,” Dr Shroff said.

“In the present case, there is a video recording between the donor and the recipient confirming their relationship. Now should we start questioning the original documents certified by government agencies?” a doctor told The Indian Express in reply to a query. In the Ruby Hall Clinic cae, an unrelated woman was allegedly presented as the organ receiver’s wife and promised Rs 15 lakh in return.

Dr Vivek Kute, secretary of the ISOT, said though more than 1.5 lakh organ transplants were required every year, fewer than 15,000 organ transplants were performed.

Speaking at the press conference, Dr. Georgi Abraham, president-elect of the ISOT, said, “Now expecting the professional doctors involved in organ transplants to be able to conduct documentary diligence by scrutinising each and every document and spot a fake or forged document with a forensic eye is something in which they are not trained, nor is it expected from them by the THOTA (Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act). Making an underlying assumption that those who fail to do so will be punished as abettors of crime and accomplices of criminals is a wrong-footed move which is very likely to have disastrous consequences for public health in general. If that were to happen, it is not unlikely that existing doctors who are trained to perform transplantation may reduce their practice, and students of medicine may not opt for training in transplantation and look at less risky specialisations.

In a statement, the associations including ISOT and the Indian Society of Nephrology (ISN) said hospitals scrutinise numerous documents before undertaking an organ transplant with due diligence. Despite that, there is a possibility of money being exchanged between the recipient and the donor and the falsification of the documents. It is with this purpose that there are seven deterrent clauses in the consent forms from the live donor that need to be countersigned in front of the notary public making an affidavit, it further said.

The statement condemned organ-commerce and other unethical practices as reprehensible. The professional associations hoped that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare would keep principles of THOTA in letter and spirit and not discourage professionals from offering transplantation altogether.