Bharat SainiLast Updated on February 25, 2017 by Bharat Saini
The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry is firming up a proposal to amend Motor Vehicle Act to give people the option to pledge their organs, in case of death in a road accident, while applying for a driving licence. Once this is amended the current driving licence holders will also have the option to give the organ donation consent. Such a practice exists in many countries like US, UK, Australia, Spain, Japan and New Zealand. In organ donation a person allows healthy transplantable organs and tissues to be removed, either after death or while the donor is alive, and transplanted into another person. Common transplantations include: kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, lungs, bones, bone marrow, skin, and corneas.
The Transplantation of Human Organs Act was enacted in 1994 and subsequently amended in 2011 to curb organ trade and promote donation after brain death and it brought about a significant change in the organ donation and transplantation scene in India. Donations after brain death have slowly started happening in India and in the year 2013 a total of 845 organs were retrieved from 310 multi-organ donors resulting in a national organ donation rate of merely 0.26 per million population, compared with America’s 26, Spain’s 35.3, and Croatia’s 36.5 per million.
In India, a huge gap exists between demand and supply of human organs for transplantation. According to health ministry data, against requirement of about 200000 Kidneys, 50000 Livers and 50000 Hearts only about 5000 Kidneys, 1000 Livers and a small number of Hearts are transplanted annually. The death rate, due to road accidents in India, is among the highest in the world. In the year 2015, 1.46 lac people were killed in road accidents, many of them from severe head injuries and a significant number were left brain dead. There is little awareness among people, of organ donations; many lives could be saved if all the organs from brain dead individuals could be taken out. This is against the backdrop of the rate of organ donation teetering under one per cent.
For living donors, organ donation typically involves extensive testing before the donation, including psychological evaluation to determine whether the would-be donor understands and consents to the donation. On the day of donation, the donor and the recipient arrive at the hospital, just like they would for any other major surgery. For dead donors, the process begins with verifying that the person is hopelessly dead, determining whether any organs could be donated, and obtaining consent for the donation of any usable organs. Normally, nothing is done until the person has already died, although if death is inevitable, it is possible to check for consent and to do some simple medical tests shortly beforehand, to help find a matching recipient. After death, the hospital may keep the body on a mechanical ventilator and use other methods to keep the organs in good condition. The surgical process depends upon which organs are being donated. After the surgeons remove the organs, they are transported as quickly as possible to the recipient, for immediate transplantation. Most organs only survive outside the body for a few hours, so recipients in the same region are usually chosen.
