Organ donation Rules to aid poor

February 11, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Feb 10: Under flak for its failure to control trade in human organs, the
Central government has come out with a draft amendment to the Transplantation of
Human Organs Rules, 1995 with stringent guidelines to protect the poor from unscrupulous doctors and touts.
A copy of the draft amendment is now available on the website of the Union Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare, for people to post their comments and suggestions.
This time the Centre has taken care to invite the opinion of the common man before
adopting the draft Rules, since a majority of the victims of kidney racket are either
farmers or poor labourers.
The Centre has plugged all the loopholes in the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and Rules, 1995 as it could not control illegal sale of human organs particularly kidneys during the last 12 years. The Act and Rules have in fact, helped
unscrupulous doctors to play with the lives of the poor living in far flung villages.
The new Rules provide for donation of one's body organs after death. An authorisation from the donor has been made compulsory. The doctor performing the
surgery should satisfy himself about the authorisation, before removing an organ
from the donor.
Moreover, it is now the responsibility of the surgeon to ensure that the donor is in a proper state of health and is fit to donate the organ. The donor should be a relative of the recipient and the donation should be approved by the authorisation
committee set up by the Centre. The doctor should perform necessary medical tests to
find out whether the donor and the recipient are relatives. Old photographs of
donor and recipient together should also be produced before seeking approval for
transplantation.
The amended Rules have made it mandatory for a study of the financial status of the
donor and the recipient. Any gross disparity between the financial status of the two will have to be evaluated in the backdrop of the objective of preventing commercial dealing.
The hospital dealing with the transplantation surgery should involves experts in
internal medicine, diabetology, gastroenterology, nephrology, neurology, paediatrics,
gyaenecology immunology and cardiology.