A leading kidney transplant surgeon from Israel has been arrested in Turkey on suspicion of involvement in an illegal organ transplantation ring that performed operations at a private hospital in Istanbul.
Zaki Shapira, former head of the transplant centre at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, to the north east of Tel Aviv, was arrested in the course of a gun battle between police and armed robbers at the hospital on 27 April. Turkish doctors and hospital staff were also arrested.
Turkish sources say that police officers who searched the hospital after the shooting discovered that it had been shut down by court order a month earlier for illegal transplantations. During the search the officers found four patients—three of them Israelis—at the hospital. Two had donated organs for transplantation and one had received a transplant. The patients were transferred to other hospitals in Istanbul.
“During the operations, robbers attacked the hospital,” the Israeli transplant recipient said afterwards. “A few people were killed, and the patients had to be evacuated immediately so they wouldn't be killed too. The police took advantage of the opportunity and arrested the doctors because the transplant operations weren't authorised.”
Professor Shapira is among the pioneers of organ transplantation in Israel and has promoted transplantations from live donors in the country. “Many people owe him their lives,” an associate said of Professor Shapira said after the arrest.
In 1996, however, Professor Shapira was prohibited from performing live donor transplantations in Israel after an investigation by the health ministry suspected him of being involved in organ trafficking. Since retiring he has accompanied transplant recipients on trips abroad for surgery, particularly to Turkey.
Professor Eitan Mor, director of the transplant centre at Rabin Medical Center and a member of the Israel Transplantation Society's board of directors, said, “We express our regret for this incident, which sullies the reputation of everyone in the field in Israel. We oppose trading in organs, in Israel and abroad, and are working to prevent such activities by drafting the transplantation bill that has been submitted to the Knesset [Israeli parliament] and in discussions with the relevant authorities in the health ministry and the country's health maintenance organisations.
“We call on the health ministry to find solutions to the organ shortage in Israel, within the confines of the law, and at the same time call on the public to sign organ donor cards in order to expand the availability of organs for transplant in Israel.”
The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed Professor Shapira's arrest and said that he is being advised by the consulate. Yair Skalki, the lawyer who is representing Professor Shapira, said, “Professor Shapira did not violate any law relating to organ trafficking, or any other law—not in the past and not on this occasion. All of Professor Shapira's activities are for the sake of saving human life.”