COLOMBO: The Counsel for the six Indians who were arrested here on April 1 for donating their kidneys illegally to patients in Sri Lanka, told the Colombo Chief Magistrate on Monday, that in the last three years, nearly 1,200 Indians had had their kidneys removed in Lanka, the State-owned Daily News reported on Tuesday.
But Counsel Lakshan Dias submitted that the operations were done with the express approval of the Director General of Health Services as per Lankan law.
Explaining the procedure, Dr.Nalinda Herath of the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) told media, that every kidney transplant case will first have to go before the Ethics Committee of the hospital concerned. Its recommendation is then forwarded to the Director, Private Sector Promotion, in the Ministry of Health. It then goes to the Director General of Health, whose nod is necessary for the kidney donation to be valid.
In January the Nalgonda police in India registered a case against six Lankan doctors working in four Colombo private hospitals in a kidney donor racket case. One of them is a member of the GMOA.
The Lankan medical community denied the allegation and charged that it was an Indian conspiracy to discredit them. But they cooperated with the Health Ministry’s five-member investigative committee, which submitted its report in February.
“Its contents have not been revealed despite our requests. The GMOA is interested as one of the accused is a member,” Dr.Herath said.