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Posted: 26-04-2002 12:00 Post subject: Thai 'murder for kidney' trial starts

Hi All.
Suppose this has links to the popular urban myths of organs removed without the owners permission..

Cheers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1952000/1952129.stm

A Thai criminal court has begun hearing the cases of three doctors and a hospital manager accused of conspiring to murder patients for their kidneys.
It is alleged the doctors - who worked at Bangkok's private Vajiraprakarn hospital - removed the organs when the patients were in a coma, but not officially declared brain dead.

Prosecutor Charathana Phatanapanich told the court on Thursday the hospital manager falsified documents to say the victims' relatives voluntarily donated their kidneys.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges in what is believed to be the first case of medical murder to go to court in Thailand.

Organ donation is permitted in Thailand, with the consent of the donor's family and the recipient's - but no money is allowed to change hands.

Strange scars

The two cases allegedly occurred in February and November of 1997.

The trial was the result of a lengthy investigation after suspicious relatives found surgical scars on the bodies of their kin, who died after being in a coma for some time.

Lawyers said it could take over a year to hear testimony from about 120 witnesses in the case, which has taken prosecutors two years to put together.

If found guilty of murder, the doctors could face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, while the document forgery charges carry up to five years in jail.

The doctors' licences were revoked in 2000 by the Thai Medical Council after it found them guilty of breaching medical ethics.

See also:

31 Aug 00 | Asia-Pacific
Surgeons face kidney theft charges
11 Feb 00 | Asia-Pacific
Thai doctors guilty in kidney scandal
27 Jul 99 | Asia-Pacific
Thai hospital denies organ trade
28 Jun 01 | Asia-Pacific
Gaining a kidney from an execution
28 Jun 01 | Asia-Pacific
Global demand fuels human organ trade
03 Sep 99 | Sci/Tech
Kidney sale on Web halted
Internet links:

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Royal Thai Police
Bangkok Post

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Posted: 02-09-2002 11:12 Post subject: Stolen Organs

Now we all know the UL about a guy who passes out at a party and come round in a bath full of ice to find that he is missing a kidney. Well I had always assumed that it was a hoax but then I thought again.
I'm sure you noticed in the news recently that a doctor was struck off because he had been found trafficing human organs from live donors. Well as part of this story they were talking to the man who was investigating this and other problems of live donor transfers. He said that although most of the donors we very poor people in India etc. who knew what they were doing and were willing to take the risk for £1000 or so; some of them where not aware that this was what was going to happen. He said that he had come across some cases of people who had been smuggled into the UK and the States on false papers, thinking that when they got there they could just nic off and find their family. But no, when they got there they where told by the smugglers that the cost of their passage was a kidney. Being in a strange country and on false papers they were to afraid argue and had the organ forceably removed!

Posted: 09-04-2003 15:15 Post subject:

I've heard that in Japan you can 'bet' an organ for another or a substantial amount of money. omg

Anyone else heard this? Plus I have seen a movie where this went on soo, maybe there is a grain of truth in it?

Posted: 09-04-2003 15:33 Post subject:

I heard it was China....

Posted: 09-04-2003 16:03 Post subject:

Maybe it happens everywhere....ack! A while back there was a scandal about organs being removed from mainly dead children for scientific purposes without the parents' consent.

Also, another organ related UL. A very helpful family member of mine informed me in all seriousness that having a 'doner card' left the hospitals with the right to a kidney/eyeball/lung. Complete tosh. Still, you don't think it possible 'they' may just help themselves if you need surgery, or worse, let you just die Surprised

if you're involved in an accident? splat

Posted: 09-04-2003 16:11 Post subject:

They can have whatever they want of me once I'm dead, provided there's anything left.

Posted: 09-04-2003 17:21 Post subject:

Yeah but these kids were catholic and I think the way it goes is with the body desecrated there is no resting in peace.

Here's another nice little factoid, when operating in the local, it is normal practice to whip out your appendix and anything else growing in there not doing you any good. Its a bit like internal weeding.

Did you ever hear of hospitals keeping vast rooms full of old removed body parts in jars? Dead / drunk

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Posted: 10-04-2003 20:11 Post subject:

*rubs hands in glee at thought of discussing X Files ep*

The hell money ep was about a crooked lottery being run where they paid to enter and if their name was chosen, then they had to choose a chip from the pot. The chip in theory could have been to win the jackpot, but if the wrong chip was chosen it depicted a body part, and the entrant had to donate that body part, which the organisers were then selling on the black market.

It wasn't really an X File, but it was rivetting in a horrific way.