Much needed easing (GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry announced the government is doing away with the domicile requirement to register for receiving an organ.
- The Union Health Ministry is working on a 'One Nation, One Organ Allocation' policy in consultation with states to come up with uniform guidelines for registration, allocation and other aspects of the process.
Background:
- So far, the regime required any person, in need of organ transplant, to be domiciled in a state to be eligible to register on that state’s prospective recipients’ list.
- Also, seniors, a demographic that would have a greater need for transplants, can now register for receiving organs; earlier, the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation guidelines debarred those above 65 years of age from receiving donated organs.
Advantages of new rules:
- Scrapping the domicile rule should improve access to donated organs for those in need and can prove life-saving.
- A New Delhi, for instance, sees much fewer deceased-donor organ donations than a Tamil Nadu or a Telangana. Curiously, at 3,623, the national capital territory saw the highest number of living-donor transplants in 2022.
- The new rules would enable a person from Delhi to avail of a transplant in time in a state that sees a lower demand. Moreover, with the productive life of Indians gradually getting extended, allowing those above 65 years of age to receive donated organs is a shot in the arm for improved health in the country.
Non-availability of donor organs:
- However, the real challenge is the massive gap between demand for organs and the supply thereof.
- As per data cited by Organ India, nearly five lakh people need organ transplants every year but only a small fraction. For instance, in 2022, there were just 15,561 organ transplants.
- Although this was certainly an improvement compared with the 4,990 transplants in 2013, it means the vast majority of those in need suffer, even die, because of the non-availability of donor organs.
- There has been some progress as reflected in the growing number of deceased donor transplants in the last decade (2013-2022).
- There is also an improvement in the harvesting of organs from deceased donors, reflected in the average organ transplants per donor increasing from 2.43 in 2016 to 3.05 in 2022. But this is nowhere near enough, given just 250 patients received heart transplants, against the estimated need of 50,000.
What needs to be done?
- It is clear that the dismal donation rate of 0.86 per million population needs to be pushed drastically upwards. The shortage of donated organs can be attributed to, among other factors, the lack of awareness among the masses regarding organ donation, the taboos stemming from religion, and infrastructural inadequacy.
- Crucially, not only is there a lack of awareness about brain stem death among the deceased person’s families and relatives, there are also some perceived tripwires emerging from healthcare industry protocols and the existing legal framework.
- Some experts point out how the difference between the protocols to declare a person “brain dead” can cause delays in harvesting, leading to wastage of organs.
- While brain-stem death is recognised by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 1994, there is no mention of it in the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, leading to uncertainty in some cases. Meanwhile, the donation deficit has spawned illegal trade in organs, worsening human trafficking in the country.
Way Forward:
- A uniform policy will help patients in seeking transplant from deceased donors at any hospital in the country, giving them a lot of flexibility.
