A jury in Sao Paulo has convicted three Brazilian doctors of killing four patients for their kidneys.  Rui Sacramento, Pedro Torrecillas and Mariano Fiore Junior were each sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison.

While the allegations are dramatic, the deaths happened in 1986 -- it took 25 years for the case to work its way through the courts. Another doctor, Antonio de Carvalho Monteiro, was also involved, but he died last year. The doctors will be allowed to practice medicine while appealing the judgement.

The Sao Paulo state prosecutor said that the doctors removed kidneys before the patients were “brain dead”. The organs were removed in a public hospital and transplanted in a private hospital where the recipients paid about US$41,000. However, there was no clear-cut evidence of organ trafficking. The defence attorney denied that the patients were alive when the organs were removed. "If you convict them, you will be the first jury in the country to convict doctors for killing people who were already dead," he said in court. ~ NPR, Oct 21