Organ Harvesting: Questions That Need Urgent Answers

To exhume the cliché, the media were awash on Thursday with the news that the UK police had arrested Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, for conspiring to bring a child to the UK for organ harvesting.

Indeed, the story succeeded in breaking the internet.

London Metropolitan Police charged the Ekweremadus with conspiracy to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting, a charge that adds another dimension to the stigma of trafficking which has trailed Nigerians for years.

Probing deeper into the emerging story, newsmen gathered that the senator’s daughter has been suffering from a kidney disease so needed a transplant.

Subsequently, a donor was gotten and sent to the UK for investigation with the aim of providing a kidney. But the kidney did not match that of Ekweremadu’s child.

The donor was then billed to return to Nigeria but he refused to return and instead reported to the UK police to seek asylum, a situation which then warranted the arrest of the lawmaker and his wife.

Arraigned before a Magistrates’ Court in Uxbridge, the Ekweremadu’s pleaded not guilty to the charges which Magistrate Lois Sheard termed ‘serious allegations’ before adjourning the case until July 7.

Expectedly, the couple has been remanded in custody ahead of their hearing next month, while the ‘child’ at the centre of the storm has been safeguarded even as police continue working closely with partner agencies to get to the root of the matter.

Let’s say the above is just a backgrounder. Interestingly, many persons have continued to ask many questions even though investigations are ongoing.

Let’s take a look at some of the burning questions right now. Please permit us. We shall make it a question and straight answer session. Let’s go!

 Is organ donation/transplant a crime in the UK?

No. However, the process of organ donation and transplanting have legislations that guide them and these legislations slightly vary in England, Scotland, Wales and the Northern Ireland.

Did the Ekweremadus obtain consent and from who?

While we await the findings, this question can only be answered if relatives of the individual involved come out to speak on the matter.

If the donor was underaged, how did he obtain a falsified international passport?

If established that the donor in the Ekweremadu’s case is indeed a minor, and his passport was falsified, then it really calls to question all that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) boasts of and the trust vested in the service, especially in this time when there are links between international passports and the National Identification Number (NIN).

What legislation does Nigeria have regarding organ donation?

While one is tempted to out-rightly say that Nigeria has no legislation regarding organ donation and transplant, it is safer to say that the nation has a National Health Act, 2014 which contains many loopholes and does not cover the full scope of the practice in our world today.

Great!

Do you have any question regarding this brouhaha? Please add it to this post. To do so, please make use of the comments. Thanks.