Make organ donation mandatory after death; by living minors only under exceptional cases: Doctors

Judiciary will have to play a major role in drawing a line where and when to stop. I feel the government should bring in laws to make deceased organ donation mandatory rather than encouraging all this, Jain said.

Prof (Dr) Sanjeev Gulati, Principal Director, Nephrology & Kidney Transplant Fortis Escorts Heart Institute said that in the absence of a viable cadaveric programme, living organ donation remains a life saving act.

He said that the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation should approve such donations on a case-to-case basis rather than subjecting the family to an additional stress of approaching the law on top of the illness.

I feel that in this case the minor should be allowed to donate along with consent from one of his guardians (as would have been done if the boy was subjected to any other medical procedure) since survival of his father is dependent on a successful liver transplant, he said.

In another case in May, a committee formed by the Maharashtra government refused a 16-year-old girl’s plea to donate a part of her liver to her ailing father, saying it was unsure if the teenager consented to the medical procedure out of free will. The girl, through her mother, had moved the Bombay High Court seeking a direction of the state government for permission to donate a part of her liver.