NEW DELHI: The Health Ministry is issuing a draft notification to amend the law on the donation of the organs to allow even the in-laws becoming eligible to donate key organs like kidneys to their relatives as permissible today only in Maharashtra. The apex committee of National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) has written to the ministry under which it functions to allow such donations to deal with the long waiting list of patients needing the organ transplant.
In case of live and unrelated donors, a patient has to undergo a lot of legal hurdles and documentation to ensure there is no monetary involvement. —From Our Bureau The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 2011, allows donation only by a “near relative” who can be aprents, children, siblings, spouse, grandparents and grand children.
Dr Anup Kumar, head of renal transplant and urology department in the government”s Safdarjung Hospital and also a member of the NOTTO”s apex committee, said: “We see over 100 patients are are on the waiting list and need kidney transplant. They are not etting donors. Most of them are dependent on dialysis and cadaver organ transplant. But cadaver organ donation in India is very poor due to lack of awareness. Patients live a poor quality of life because of unavailability of donors.”
India ranks lowest with 1 per million population for cadaver organ donation as against Spain topping with 32 per million population. According to the health ministry statistics, 905 cadaver donors were available across the country in 2017, an improvement of 807 in 2016.
