Parents refuse to donate kidney to dying daughter, say ‘she is a girl’

The hapless girl awaiting death at a government hospital in Sheikhpura town after both her kidneys have failed. (SNS)


A teenage girl has been battling for life at a government hospital in Bihar after both her kidneys have failed. What is shocking, though, is the response of her parents who have refused to donate their kidneys saying they can’t do so since she is a girl!

Kanchan Kumari, a resident of Avgil village under Sadar block in Sheikhpura district, had appeared for matriculation examination from a local government girl’s high school this year. Her joy knew no bounds when she passed the examination in the first division.

Life took a sharp turn soon thereafter. Hardly had the celebration ended when she fell seriously sick. Subsequently, her parents took her to the local hospitals in the town and then at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna for treatment. Subsequent tests conducted on her confirmed that both her kidneys had failed.

With no money to pay for her kidney transplant, the parents rushed Kanchan back home in Sheikhpura and admitted her to the local Sadar hospital, the main government hospital in the district. What was more distressing was that her parents have refused to donate their kidneys on the ground that she is a girl, local media has reported. Lying on the hospital bed, the hapless girl now awaits her slow death with no medical help in sight and her parents showing no intent to save her.

“Who will donate his/her kidneys? She is a girl,” her father Ramashray Yadav replied on being asked by a local newsman. Her mother too showed no interest in her case.

What’s further strange, the parents have not approached the government for help even though the Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF) has helped quite many such patients in the past. Although the resources of the CMRF are utilized primarily to render immediate relief to the families of those killed in natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones and earthquakes, yet this fund was also rendered to defray the expenses for medical treatment like heart surgeries, kidney transplantation and cancer treatment.