Organ Removals From the Poor and Transplanted into the Rich Were Murder, Thai Police Say by Phairath Khampha 31 August 2000 Police in Thailand have recommended murder charges be laid against two doctors accused of transplanting kidneys from patients who were not yet dead. Two Thai senior doctors at Watchariprakan Hospital and one former administrator should be charged with premeditated murder, said a Thai police report, released on August 25, 2000, on illegal human organ transplants at the hospital. The accused removed kidneys from poor patients who they had pronounced brain dead, a condition not accepted as legally dead, the report said. Thailand's penal code defines death as the moment when the heart stops. The organs were "sold" to rich patients who needed them. The report recommended that murder charges be brought against Dr Sirote Kanchanapanjapon, a prominent surgeon and former hospital director, Dr Veeradet Lertdamronglak and former administrator Nanthawit Thongchai. The case arose after it was discovered organ trading was taking place at the private hospital specialising in organ transplants. Relatives of patients who suddenly and suspiciously died after becoming comatose stated that the doctors had removed kidneys from the deceased without prior consent. The patients were often impoverished and the hospital paid for their funerals. The organs were then transplanted into patients who had paid large sums of money to the hospital. Pol Col Sophon Pisuthiwong, the chief investigator in the case, said his investigation had compiled testimonies from 66 witnesses, including four medical experts, before accusing the three suspects of murdering patients in order to obtain their organs. The police report outlined how and why the three accused failed to provide proper treatment for patients who were in a coma, Sophon said. After comatose patients were transferred to the care of the accused, treatment was aimed at improving the condition of the organs needed for transplant rather than the health of the patients, he said. The accused also falsified patients' records in order to cover up the illegal removal of kidneys, he added. His investigation did not include 90 cases of organ donations involving impoverished patients who were coerced into allowing their organs to be removed to pay for hospital treatment they could not afford, he said. Many had been told the other kidney would be removed to pay for their treatment and then they would we left to die. Since the details became public knowledge, Sirote was removed from his post as hospital director, but he remained on the teaching staff at Ramathibodi Hospital. That hospital's medical dean, Prakit Vetheesathokkit, said that if the public prosecutor brought charges against Sirote, the university hospital would suspend him. Organ payments Government prosecutor Anuchart Kongmalai said the doctors murdered the patients in 1997, harvested their organs and faked paperwork to cover up the crime. Police investigators said the doctors were paid almost one million baht ($25,000) in each case by wealthy patients needing organ transplants. Police dropped charges against a fourth suspect whom they plan to use as a witness.