Five eminent doctors Dr. B. Ekbal, Dr. V. Ramankutty, Dr. K. P. Aravindan, Dr. Joy Elamon and Dr. S. S. Santhosh Kumar have blamed the leaders of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for damaging the reputation of the doctor community in the State by trying to whitewash the kidney transplantation issue.

In a joint statement issued, they said that the facts relating to the kidney sale controversy were pretty clear: renal transplants were done in some private hospitals using kidneys from live unrelated donors, including several Adivasis from Idukki and, shockingly, even from a young woman after terminating her pregnancy.

An IMA probe into the kidney transplantation scandal in two hospitals in Kozhikode district of Kerala had found the hospitals and doctors not guilty of the charges and said money transaction had taken place between the donors and the recipients.

The report of the enquiry committee of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Kerala Branch, released by the IMA Ethics Committee chairman Dr M Bhaskaran and IMA state president Dr P T Cherian said there was no evidence to show that the hospital authorities and doctors directly or indirectly influenced in any way the kidney donors to give their kidney. Money transactions have taken place without the knowledge of hospitals authorities and doctors, the report said.

The enquiry was conducted into the charges that the hospitals had made a deal with kidney donors and performed transplantation violating the norms under the act. It was reported that tribals of Idukki districts were exploited by "agents" with promise of huge amount for their organ. However, all donors interviewed admitted that they were giving their kidney willingly and no donor was compelled or persuaded to give his or her kidney, the report said, which stated further that some donors were cheated by agents by not paying the promised amount.

The Authorisation Committee, set up under the Transplantation of Human Organ Act 1994, failed to detect the illegal money transactions between some of the donors and recipients through agents, the report said.

"Both the recipient and the donor ought to be patients of equal value to the treating nephrologist and transplant surgeon. It was their primary duty to assess the suitability of the potential kidney donor and to ensure that donation was altruistic and without coercion or financial reward. They also had the basic duty to ensure that the risks to the donor were minimised," the doctors averred.

"Even a suspicion that the organ donation is done for reasons other than altruism is enough for them to reject such a donor. Not only did they not find it disconcerting that hoards of Adivasis from Idukki were suddenly driven by altruism to donate their kidneys to total strangers, but they actively sought the approval of the authorisation committee for the same. A lactating woman was screened as a donor and when she was found to be pregnant, her pregnancy was aborted to pave the way doing the transplant a few weeks later,'' the doctors said.

In this context, they noted that the British Transplantation Society considered pregnancy as an absolute contraindication and women in childbearing age as a relative contraindication for being a kidney donor. "What is really shocking is that even the mildest of criticisms against these grave lapses aired in the original report of the committee appointed by the IMA to study the issue, is sought to be hushed up by the IMA bigwigs. It seems now that what they really wanted was a whitewash job. The chairman of the inquiry committee showed that he has a mind of his own. And, for that he is now facing disciplinary action (in the IMA)'', Dr. Ekbal and the other signatories to the statement said.

They urged the members of the IMA to question the rationale of such conduct by their leadership. "They should insist that the purpose should be to bring out the truth and punish the wrong doers - however powerful they are. This is necessary for the people to retain their faith in doctors, a vast majority of whom is practicing ethical medicine. Let not a small caucus lead the organisation astray," they said.