Who is allowed to donate an organ

We do not endorse as public policy the sale of the human body through prostitution of any sort, despite the purported benefits of such a sale for both the buyer and the seller. Cantarovitch suggests that organ transplantation depends on a social contract and social trust and it requires national and international law protecting the rights of both organ donors and organ recipients.

These policy-makers should remember that the value of using short-term financial gains for donors to increase the supply of organs for transplantation is not a cure for poverty. As long there are people who can be exploited for money in society, certain evils are likely to perpetuate and legalizing the organ donation process will add another dimension to that evil and further weaken the social fabric.

The high demand and poor supply of kidneys in the United States has widen over the years. This has resulted in many patients traveling abroad for transplant surgery. Accordingly, giving or receiving payment… for organs should be prohibited. More recently, the representatives of the world transplant community met in Istanbul to discuss the growing transplant donation commerce and transplant tourism.

In India, where the deceased donation rate is abysmally small, there is a need to seriously explore this option and seems to be the way forward to our problem of organ shortage and to curb commerce in organs. Besides this swap or donor exchange in living transplants should be explored as a feasible alternative. There are currently over transplant centers in India performing approximately 3, to 4, kidney transplants annually. Out of these transplant centers, four centers undertake approximately to liver transplants annually while some of these centers also do an occasional heart transplant.

Presently, approximately 50 liver transplants are done from deceased donors and the rest are from living donors. So far, heart transplants have also been done.

The total number of road accidents is approximately 90, per annum and in Tamil Nadu alone reported 13, fatal deaths due to road accidents. Other causes of brain death such as sub-arachnoids' hemorrhage and brain tumors would potentially add more numbers. Promoting the deceased donation program would not only help kidney transplants but also liver, heart, pancreas, and lung transplants to thrive in the country.

There have been pockets of success with the deceased donation program and organ sharing among various hospitals. More recently, there has been a spurt of deceased solid organ donations in the state making deceased donation a possible alternative to the living transplant program.

If properly organized, the deceased organ donation program has the potential to take care of the majority of the demands of kidney, liver, and heart transplants of that state. Understanding the ethics of organ donation is important if we are to tackle the moral and ethical challenges that are emerging with cutting edge regenerative medicine such as stem cells transplants, cloning, and tissue re-engineering. The ethical principles of organ donation is an acid test that will help us in evolving and resolving many of the future moral issues that we are likely to encounter.

The THO act despite having been passed 15 years ago has neither curbed commerce in organs nor helped promotion of the deceased donation program to take care of the organ shortage. The gap between the numbers of organs available and the number of patients joining the waiting list for a kidney transplant is widening globally. The high demand of organs has led to its commodification, more so in countries where there is a large proportion of the population below the poverty line with weak regulatory authorities.

The resulting transplant tourism has caused an outcry from many international bodies. In India, the potential for deceased donation is huge due to the high number of fatal road traffic accidents and this pool is yet to be tapped. Few hospitals and committed NGOs in the country have shown that deceased donation as a feasible option.

The ethics of kidney donation has important bearings on the society as this would form the basis to resolve many conflicts in emerging regenerative sciences. Source of Support: Nil. Conflict of Interest: None declared. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.

Journal List Indian J Urol v. Indian J Urol. Sunil Shroff. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. For correspondence: Dr. E-mail: moc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Keywords: Cadaver transplantation, ethics in transplantation, related donor.

Each has a defined role as follows: Role of Authorization Committee AC - The purpose of this body is to regulate the process of authorization to approve or reject transplants between the recipient and donors other than a first relative. Application Forms The Transplantation of Human Organ Act clearly lays out various procedures; for this purpose, it has thirteen different forms [Table 1].

Authority for removal of human organ Any donor may authorize the removal, before his death, of any human organ of his body for therapeutic purposes as specified in Forms 1 A , 1 B , and 1 C. He should also confirm the following: The donor is in a proper state of health and is fit to donate the organ. A registered medical practitioner shall, before removing a human organ from the body of a person after his death, confirm the following: The donor had, in the presence of two or more witnesses at least one of whom is a close relative of the recipient , unequivocally authorized as specified in Form 5 before his death, the removal of the human organ of his body after his death for therapeutic purposes and there is no reason to believe that the donor had subsequently revoked the authority.

A registered medical practitioner shall, before removing a human organ from the body of a person in the event of brain-stem death, confirm the following: A certificate as specified in Form 8 has been signed by all the members of the Board of Medical Experts.

Working Guidelines for the Authorization Committee The new gazette clearly lays down the following guidelines: 1. When the proposed donor and the recipient are not close relatives, the Authorization Committee shall evaluate that there is no commercial transaction between the recipient and the donor and the following shall specifically be assessed: An explanation of the link between them and the circumstances that led to the offer being made Reasons why the donor wishes to donate Documentary evidence of the link, e.

The donor is not a drug addict or known person with criminal record The next of kin of the proposed unrelated donor is interviewed regarding awareness about his or her intention to donate an organ, the authenticity of the link between the donor and the recipient and the reasons for donation. The AC should state in writing its reason for rejecting or approving the application of the proposed donor and all approvals should be subject to the following conditions: The approved proposed donor would be subjected to all medical tests as required at relevant stages to determine his biological capacity and compatibility to donate the organ in question.

All interviews should be video recorded. Additional ACs may be set up at various levels as per the requirements as follows: No member from the transplant team of the institution should be a member of the respective AC.

Composition of a hospital-based AC Medical Director or Medical Superintendent of the Hospital Two senior medical practitioners from the same hospital who are not part of the transplant team Two members of high integrity, social standing, and credibility Secretary Health or nominee and Director Health Services or nominee. The Transplant Clinicians Interpretation The clinicians wonder if the law itself provides a clause to help people whose own family members refuse to donate or those who do not have a fit or matching donor, why should they refuse any arrangement between the donor and recipient?

The authorization committee's interpretation When presented provisions of the law, the AC concludes that if the recipient and donor pledge affection in front of them they should not object unless there is a complaint or some gross oversight. ETHICS OF ORGAN SALE The presence of a growing middle class, the lack of a national health insurance scheme, the growing disparity between the rich and poor, and to some extent the presence of technology in the country makes the process of commodification of organs a simple, quick, and attractive business proposition for some and a solution for others.

Organ shortage: A Global Issue The high demand and poor supply of kidneys in the United States has widen over the years. Government of India. Transplantation of Human Organs Act, Karnataka's unabating kidney trade, Frontline.

Gazette - Transplantation of Human Organs Rules. GSR NO. Mani MK. Making an Ass of the Law. Letter from Chennai. Natl Med J India. Liver transplantation in India: Its evolution, problems and the way forward. Nat Med J India. Economic and Health Consequences of selling a Kidney in India. Cohen LR. Philosophy and Medicine. Ethical incentives--not payment--for organ donation.

N Engl J Med. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. Epub Aug Organ trafficking and transplant tourism and commercialism: the Declaration of Istanbul. Cadaver organ donation and transplantation-an Indian perspective.

Transplant Proc. Shroff S. Working towards ethical organ transplants. Indian J Med Ethics. Support Center Support Center. External link. Please review our privacy policy. This site provides valuable information and data related to clinical programs and services that support interprovincial sharing of organs, professional education resources including the Canadian Clinical Guide to Organ Donation , numerous reports, leading practices and clinical guidelines relevant to deceased donation, living donation, transplantation and tissues.

Canadian Blood Services works with the Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation OTDT community across the country to facilitate inter-provincial organ sharing and to improve national system performance through the development of leading practices, professional education, public awareness and data analysis and reporting.

The results reflected in these reports represent the individual and collective work of the provincial and territorial partners, organ donation programs, and transplant programs as well as the national efforts led by Canadian Blood Services. Am I eligible? Register your intent to donate.

Can I be a donor if I am older or have a medical condition? Tissue donation is possible for nearly everyone, even when organ donation is not possible. Eye and tissue donors can improve the lives of up to 75 patients. You are six times more likely to need an organ transplant than to become an organ donor. It takes 2 minutes to register your decision to become an organ donor.

Sometimes a simple thing like a cold or medication that you are taking can prevent you from donating blood. The decision about whether some or all organs or tissue are suitable for transplant is always made by a medical specialist at the time of donation, taking into account your medical history.

Get the facts behind common misconceptions around organ donation and funeral arrangements, faith and beliefs, the opt out system, family involvement and more. All the major religions and belief systems in the UK support the principles of organ donation and transplantation.

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Who can donate? Ireland Crown dependencies. Become a living donor Donating your kidney Donating part of your liver Bone and amniotic membrane donation. Get involved News Campaigns Share your experience. You are here: Home Helping you to decide About organ donation Who can donate?

Who can become an organ donor? Organ donation and eligibility. Anyone can register a decision to become an organ donor after death, there is no age limit. Age limit. Is there an age limit for becoming an organ donor?