Kidney Theft: Urban Legend or Not?

Officials in Gurgaon, India are trying to round up members of a criminal gang accused of drugging poor people, stealing their kidneys, and transplanting the organs into the bodies of wealthy customers, ABC News reported today. "It sounds like the old urban legend of people lured into an apartment or house and then being robbed of their kidneys," the report begins. "But in India, it is no legend."

Well, yes and no. Not to dismiss the report, I do feel obliged to point out that it reads more like the inverse of the familiar urban legend than a case in point. In the legend, unsuspecting foreign tourists are drugged, kidnapped, and taken to makeshift operating rooms where their kidneys are stolen for sale on the black market. The actual victims, according to police, are poverty-stricken locals, enticed with promises of employment into what can only be described as a real-life house of horrors where they are forced to "donate" their organs at gunpoint. There are foreign tourists involved, to be sure, but in this scenario they are paying customers, not victims.

Last weekend, police raided a "luxury guest house" owned by the alleged mastermind of the kidney theft ring, Dr. Amit Kumar. Neighbors had reported seeing blood running from the gutters of the building, not to mention "blood-soaked bandages and even bits of flesh" strewn in an open lot nearby.

So, is kidney theft an urban legend, or not? I suppose that depends on how the tale is told.

Read more about it:
• The Kidney Thieves - The urban legend
• No Urban Legend: Kidney Theft Ring Busted - ABC News
• 'Kidney Racket' Exposed in India - BBC News
• Kidney Racket kingpin Eludes Arrest - NDTV.com (India)