Most humans are beasts with little humanity in them.
Of that, we’ve always been convinced.
And so would all thinking people be, if only they dared to look around with a thinking eye.
But the scale of Man’s inhumanity and callousness toward fellow humans never ceases to surprise even one so cynical as yours truly.
We recently picked up The Red Market by Scott Carney from our local library after seeing a reference to the book in either the WSJ or New Yorker (we can’t remember which one).
Red Market is about trade in human organs, a trade where “crimes are covered up in a veil of altruistic ideals.” [p.6]
Even to souls pessimistic about the civilized nature of Man and NRIs like us familiar with the kidney selling business in India, Red Market is an eye opener.
Our interest in the book was also piqued by its strong focus on India.
The focus on India is not surprising for two reasons.
First, because its American author Scott Carney made his home in Chennai, India from 2006-2009 and before that lived in Rajasthan and Dharamsala. Cementing his ties to India further, the author is married to a Tamil girl Padma Govindan.
Second, where else but India can one find the acme of man’s inhumanity toward fellow humans beneath the veneer of piety, concern and civilization than that barbaric land (where a drunk Bollywood actor can with impunity kill sleeping pavement dwellers by driving his Toyota Land Cruiser on them in the dead of the night).
Despite several nations banning the sale and purchase of body parts, vested interests (doctors, hospitals, brokers, administrators, organ transporters and indifferent buyers) have skirted the laws through the fake use of the ‘donation‘ nomenclature.
As Carney writes:
You may not pay for a heart, but you definitely pay for a heart transplant. In effect, the cost of a heart migrates into the costs of services to acquire one. Hospitals and medical institutions increasingly turn profits on organ transplants; some even return revenues to shareholders. Everyone in the supply chain makes money except the actual donor. The ban on buying human body parts has allowed hospitals to acquire them essentially for free.[p.11-12]
Carney acknowledges that his book is not an encyclopedia on organ trading but addresses only the issues in the supply chain – the nexus between doctors, hospitals, brokers, criminals, the desperate buyers and the hopelessly poor that has created a situation where the poor now are compelled to sell their body parts to let the rich live a few years more. Continue reading »
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