Four Russian doctors who were arrested as they tried to remove both kidneys from a critically injured but still living patient will stand trial for attempted murder, the Russian prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
”The prosecutor’s office has completed the investigation and sent the case to the court,” a spokesperson said.
The four doctors were caught in April 2003 as they prepared to cut out the kidneys of a 50-year-old man who had been hospitalised in a serious condition with major head injuries. The man was comatose but still technically alive.
The doctors were planning to use the kidneys for transplantation.
The defendents, two doctors from the Moscow hospital and two others working in a transplantation institute, were caught by the police and Interior Ministry doctors as they were about to begin surgery to remove the kidneys.
The man died later from his head wounds, the Russian daily Izvestia reported. — Sapa-AFP