Body Parts- of dogs too!

Any first timer travelling on some of the busiest streets of Colombo and its suburbs is likely to believe there is a thriving and sophisticated business in human organs in Sri Lanka.

The huge signboards draw one's eyes to the vast range available. 'Body Parts', 'US Body Parts', 'Japan Body Parts', 'Body Parts' Japan, US', 'Used Body Parts' are some of the signboards one can see whether at Panchikawatte, Delkanda, Mt. Lavinia and along some parts of the Colombo-Kandy Road.

Given the very laudable publicity that Sri Lanka has received abroad for the donation of human corneas to help cure blindness in people, it is not unlikely that many may be led to believe that a combination of charitable zeal with Sri Lankan business acumen has led to the establishment of a flourishing business in human body parts, not only in the export sector but also in imports. How else can one understand the offers of US or Japanese Body Parts, marketed so openly?

I am told that many foreigners who visit Sri Lanka have made inquiries from their embassies about the state of the human organ trade in Sri Lanka. With US citizens now coming to India and Thailand for cheap replacement surgery, many have been attracted to the possible availability of cheap body parts in Sri Lanka that could cut down further on the surgical costs in Mumbai, New Delhi or Bangkok.

We have heard of the vile and illegal trade in human organs needed for transplant that takes place in countries such as India. A journalist friend of mine, who had to get a kidney transplant done a few years ago, took a donor from Sri Lanka for his surgery in India.

To his utter dismay, his donor had been offered a huge sum while my friend awaited his surgery there, and had to return home without the transplant, while the donor had sold the kidney promised to him. My friend, a respected journalist in his day, passed away soon after. Since then, I dare anyone to say that Sri Lankans lack the kidney for business. Given the monetary gain they will trade one's own kidney and that of a neighbour's, too.

My interest in Body Parts was stirred by the recent news received from Kandy of the gory details of a surreptitious, but allegedly thriving business in the body parts of animals.

Apparently there are persons in the higher reaches of the groves of academe, in Peradeniya, specializing in veterinary science, who are not loath to lining their pockets with plenty of buckshee obtained from the sale of the body parts of dogs. There are more than strong hints of an unholy alliance between some the Guru Vets of Peradeniya and the vet hospital at Getambe, for the cutting up of dogs obtained from owners under false pretexts and used for the extraction of their vital organs. If the trend catches on, and with many who are eager to see the total extinction of any but the most costly, imported/smuggled-sired 'thoroughbreds' in this country, the sight of signboards offering 'Dog Parts', 'Used Dogs Parts', 'Home Dog Parts', 'Pet Dog Parts' and even the occasional 'Stray Dog Parts' will become a common sight in our country.

Although our people are usually shocked to know of dog flesh being such a delicacy in countries such as China, Korea and the Philippines, and abhor the very idea, the lure of profit may well make our people immune to the ethical issues involved in the business in dog parts.

Those who support a totally free and unbridled economy as the only way to national development will favour of such trade in the body parts of animals as another step forward in the progress of humankind in Sri Lanka. Let's not forget that the general contempt for the eating of dog flesh has not prevented some of our people from stealing dogs, or rushing to the scenes of accidents to get bodies of gravely injured dogs, to be sold to Koreans and other dog eaters doing good business in Sri Lanka.

The news of a Dog Parts business that appears to have its roots in and around Kandy, leads one to have suspicions about what drives veterinarians in the Kandy Municipal Council to issue regular, unsubstantiated alarms about the alleged spread of rabies there and the need to kill of all stray dogs in Kandy.

When there is profit to be made, especially in foreign exchange, there is almost nothing that people will not stoop to doing.

Carrying on business in Dog Parts, can only be just another means of profit, even in the shadow of the sanctity of the Sacred Tooth Relic of the greatest teacher of compassion, tolerance and non-violence. Doggone it! Have we now begun scraping the barrel of ethics in veterinary science?