This is a chilling example of patriarchal exploitation taken to an extreme. A woman from India recently learned that one of her kidneys had vanished—and her husband is the prime suspect.
According to the BBC, a resident of West Bengal had her appendix removed several years ago at her husband's urging, after she complained of persistent stomach pain. That procedure seemed routine at the time. But here’s where the story takes a dark turn. During two different medical checkups late last year, Rita Sarkar found out she was missing a kidney. The discovery came months after her abdominal operation, when she went to doctors for lower back pain. Scans showed the discomfort stemmed from an infection in her left kidney—and that her right kidney was completely absent.
Since organs don’t simply disappear, Sarkar filed a police complaint. She stated that her husband had been demanding a dowry from her and her family even before their wedding. After they married, those demands escalated into physical and psychological abuse, continuing right up to the time of her abdominal surgery.
Based on Sarkar's report, authorities launched an investigation under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act. It is suspected that her husband sold the kidney to underground organ traffickers to collect the dowry he believed he was owed. The husband, along with his brother and mother, now faces charges of attempted murder and bride torture. The very existence of a law in India specifically targeting bride torture speaks volumes about the harsh realities women face in that country—and elsewhere.
