Cairo - A private hospital in central Egypt has been closed
down and three people are under investigation after authorities
uncovered an illegal trade in transplanted kidneys, medical and legal
sources said.
Egyptian Deputy Minister of Health Saad Maghraby told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa that a hospital located in the country's Giza
region was shut after the ministry discovered a 26-year-old Egyptian
man about to sell his kidney to a 75-year-old Saudi for 2,000
dollars.
The Egyptian prosecutor general is investigating the alleged
donor, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, would-be recipient Mohamed al- Hajry
and the hospital's owner, Magdy Soliman, legal sources told dpa.
Maghraby said al-Hajry had paid a total of 60,000 dollars to the
hospital to undergo surgery. The total amount was to be distributed
among the hospital owner and the team performing the transplant.
The ministry first uncovered the case early Monday, just hours
before Abdullah would have lost his kidney, Maghraby said.
The Egyptian official said the ministry had evidence in the form
of a written agreement between the donor and recipient to undergo
surgery in return for money.
The donor, however, on Tuesday recanted previous statements to the
prosecution, saying instead that he went to the hospital for 'a blood
test.'
'It's not the first time that we've heard that this hospital has
been performing illegal operations. The problem lies in the
difficulty in overseeing and uncovering such incidents,' Maghraby
said.
'The hospital performs illegal surgery, such as kidney and liver
transplants in the dawn hours and releases the patients to a nearby
by house two hours after the operation,' he said, adding that the
ministry had previously warned the hospital's owner to improve
sanitation standards and medical equipment.
Trading in organs for money is strictly illegal in Egypt, but many
underprivileged Egyptians wanting to pay off debts or get ahead
financially are lured into selling their kidneys by illicit
contractors in their villages.
CharlesJun 11th, 2008 - 18:03:59
What was that popular turkish movie that depicted evil americans murdering babies and muslim virgin girls while setting up an organ trade racket with an evil jewish doctor???
Valley of Wolves?
It was standing room only as I recall...
Its ironic that the illegal organ trade is in fact arab on arab...
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