A 19-year-old fashion designing aspirant named Ayesha Rashan from Pakistan’s Karachi got a new lease on life after she received a heart from an Indian patient via a heart transplantation surgery in Chennai. She was first admitted to MGM Healthcare in Chennai in 2019 as a result of a serious cardiac condition that developed into heart failure. She was advised of a heart transplant. The family was hesitant, though, because they couldn’t afford more than Rs 35 lakh needed for the transplant.
Afterwards, the medical team put the family in touch with the Aishwaryam Trust which provided the funds for the procedure. She eventually received the life-saving surgery at the hospital around six months ago and that too free of cost. The donor was a 69-year-old brain-dead patient from Delhi.
VIDEO | 19-year-old Pakistani girl undergoes successful heart transplant surgery in #Chennai.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 26, 2024
"I am feeling fine. I thank (the Indian government) for giving me visa…I got a heart transplant," says Ayesha Rashid, a resident of Karachi, Pakistan.
(Full video available on PTI… pic.twitter.com/bAeNTlkN22
Notably, the development has raised a number of concerns among netizens who are wondering how a Pakistani girl managed to reach the top of the waiting list in a nation of over 1.2 billion people that is infamous for its high heart disease rate which is double the national averages of the western world. They also emphasised how Muslims often receive organs, however, organ donation is outright forbidden in Islam.
Dr K G Suresh Rao, co-director at the hospital’s Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support claimed, “A heart is allotted to foreigners only when there is no prospective recipient in the entire country. Since this patient’s heart was that of a 69-year-old, many surgeons hesitated. We decided to take the risk partly because the condition of the donor’s heart was good and partly because we knew this was Ayesha’s only chance.”
On the other hand, the users are finding it hard to accept this argument considering the prevalence of heart disease among Indians and the enormous size of the country’s population. Organ transplants for foreigners, particularly those from Bangladesh and Pakistan, should be prohibited, according to Rakesh Krishnan Simha who highlighted, “Each year thousands of Indians die waiting for a heart transplant. However, a Pakistani girl jumped the queue and received an Indian heart free through leftist architect Chitra Vishwanath’s Aishwaryan Trust. The heart was flown from Delhi to Chennai for the Pakistani girl. The doctors claim nobody wanted it in Delhi, but who knows if these doctors are being economical with the truth to avoid controversy.”
Another user urged people not to vote for Congress and I.N.D.I. Alliance as he charged, “DMK ruled Chennai allowed heart transplant of a Pakistani girl who will never donate her organs. Thousands of Indian Tamil people were in line in government hospital but MGM Healthcare gave a heart transplant free of cost to a Pakistani.”
Another asked whether there was no one to help her in Pakistan and questioned, “Why are Muslims not organ donors? But happy to take non-Muslim ones? Muslims be organ donors.”
Organs can only be accepted, never donated
The irony was also brought out by many who questioned why Muslims are only receiving organs and never donating them because they believe it violates their religious beliefs. They challenged whether people who choose not to donate should still be able to receive organs and why there are disparate standards around it.
Even Syed Kirmani, the wicket-keeper for India’s 1983 Cricket World Cup winning team withdrew his promise to donate his eyes in 2018 which he had promised while attending an awareness campaign about eye donation at the Rajan Eye Care Centre in Chennai. He claimed to be an “emotional and sentimental” person who was moved by the hospital’s mission. He retracted his pledge because it might be against Islamic law. He claimed, “In Islam, we are not supposed to take out or donate the organs of a dead body.”
The same year, a Muslim doctor from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh named Arshad Mansuri revealed he was being threatened because he had promised to donate his organs after his death. Some in his community appeared to be offended by his noble sentiment and were angry with him for carrying out an action that they perceived to be “anti-Islamic.”
Islam forbids organ donation, according to a fatwa against him given by a madrasa in Kanpur. Arshad Mansuri, who encouraged other Muslims to donate organs has reported receiving threatening phone calls and being the target of a social boycott. Arshad Cleric Muneef Barkati who issued the fatwa asserted that the doctor approached him with a query about whether or not it is acceptable in Islam to donate one’s body or organs for medical purposes to which he responded that a human body is a gift from Allah and that in accordance with the Quran, a person does not own it.
He further added that if someone doesn’t obey what Allah commands, it’s dubious if they can truly be considered Muslims. Therefore, he claimed that Arshad Mansuri might be someone who is attempting to discredit the community by just adopting a Muslim name.
While there are several schools of thought within Islam, it seems that several individuals hold the general idea that Islam prohibits organ donation. It was reported in August 2016 that out of over a thousand records of organ or tissue donations between 2013 and 2016, not a single Muslim donor could be found in Telangana’s state cadaver organ transplantation authority’s database.
When kidney became kafir
Shockingly, it seems that the person who gives organs to a Muslim is likewise vulnerable to the wrath of the radicals. Lekha Namboothiri, a Hindu resident of Mavelikkara in the Alappuzha district of Kerala came onto a man’s advertisement in 2009 looking for kidney donors. She had turned down proposals totalling up to Rs 15 lakh and was eager to donate her kidney. Nevertheless, in 2012, she gave one of her kidneys to Shafi from Pattambi who was in critical need of a kidney replacement.
He pretended to be on his deathbed and presented himself as impoverished. Lekha made the decision and underwent the procedure in 2012. She was also struggling with her declining financial situation and lived in a leased home. Her finances had been severely strained by her husband Sajan’s medical treatment who was a patient himself. The pair’s two sons were enrolled in grades 8 and 10. However, she made the decision to proceed with the free organ donation despite these difficulties and declined numerous offers that totalled up to Rs 15 lakhs.
Everything then proceeded smoothly for nearly two years. A local newspaper learned about the incident in 2023, they wanted to run the story as it was the epitome of harmony between Muslims and Hindus. Lekha was hesitant to make things public since she and Sajan did not want unnecessary media attention but later agreed after they were persuaded by a reporter. The article was released with the “Communal Kidney” title.
Lekha’s husband informed the media that they sought Saifi’s permission before sharing their story but the latter expressed his displeasure as his family and relatives learned about it because the donor was from a different religion. The incredible deed was met with the fury of the beneficiary and his family who were overcome with a strong feeling of communal hatred. According to Lekha, Shafi insulted her after claiming to be ridiculed by friends, family and other members of his community for accepting a kidney from a Namboothiri woman.
Importantly, Lekha’s kids had attended Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) shakhas in the past to instil a sense of patriotism in them. The revelation that the family was associated with the outfit, however, was attempted to be suppressed by the state’s media. The secular media refrained from highlighting the altruistic deed committed by a Hindu.
Conclusion
Donating an organ is a wonderful deed that ought to be honoured but sometimes even the most commendable actions backfire due to the recipient’s nature. Showering generosity on the citizens of a nation that has a history of hostility against India, has preyed on Indian lives for decades and is notorious for its Hindumisia could prove catastrophic for us, as evidenced by multiple past events. Should medical tourism be an exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarkable statement that “terror and talks cannot go hand-in-hand?” It’s time we reconsider how much leeway we are willing to offer Pakistan in the name of humanity since our neighbour is doing everything in its power to bleed India and her innocent citizens.
Pakistani girl gets heart transplant in India; netizens raise questions (opindia.com)
