The Government of India enacted the Transplantation of Human
Organs (Amendment) Act, 2011. Some of the important amendments under this Act
to promote organ donation are:-
i.
Provision
of ‘Retrieval Centres’ for retrieval of organs from deceased donors and their registration
under the amended Act.
ii.
Definition
of near relative expanded to include grandparents and grandchildren.
iii.
Brain
death certification Board has been simplified and more experts have been
permitted for this certification.
iv.
‘Mandatory’
inquiry and informing option to donate in case of unfortunate event of brain
stem death of ICU patient for the purpose of organ donation.
v.
Mandatory
‘Transplant Coordinator’ for coordinating all matters relating to removal or
transplantation of human organs.
vi.
National
Human Organs and Tissues Removal and Storage Network at one or more places and
regional network
vii.
National
Registry of Donors and Recipients
viii.
Removal
of eye has been permitted by a trained technician to facilitate eye donation.
To create awareness for organ donation:
i.
Indian
Organ Donation Day is celebrated every year since the year 2010.
ii.
A
programme on Organ donation was aired through Lok Sabha Channel to spread awareness in the month of November
2013.
iii.
Awareness
activities were carried out in India International Trade fair to spread the
message of Deceased Organ Donation among the public.
iv.
Regional
"Organ Donation Awareness workshops" have been organized in
coordination with State Governments during 2011-2012 in the cities
of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Puducherry, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh, &Trivandrum for increasing the awareness among public for
organ donation.
v.
Organ
Retrieval Banking Organization at AIIMS has been registering the persons who
pledge to donate their organs after death.
vi.
National
Organ Transplant Programme has been approved with main component of
Information, Education and Communication activities to promote organ donation
from deceased donors.
An online system with a dedicated website is being developed
for establishing network for retrieval of organs from deceased /cadaver donors
and their allocation and distribution in a transparent manner.
A computerized system
of National Registry of donors and recipients including those waiting for
receiving organs from swapping or deceased donors is also going to be put in
place. The amended Act-2011 has made a provision of higher penalties for
illegal organ trading.
The Draft Transplantation of Organ and Tissue Rules, 2013
were published on the website of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to
enable the public at large to file their suggestions/objections to the proposed
amendments in the Rules. All the suggestions/objections as received were considered in consultation with the experts from both
central and State Governments to finalize the Draft Rules.
The amended Transplantation of Human Organs Rules have been sent to Ministry of Law for final vetting, before
gazette notification.
This was stated by Sh. Ghulam Nabi Azad,
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare in a written reply to the Lok Sabha today.
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MV/GM