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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : October 3, 2012 11:12 AM IST
The Delhi HC has asked the Centre to explain what its policy was concerning organ harvesting from cadavers. "Director General of Health Services is supposed to file an affidavit before the court on the policy which has been put in place by the ministry of health and family welfare with regard to organs harvested from cadavers," Justice Rajiv Shakdher said in an order on Monday.
"The affidavit will also disclose whether information with regard to swapping requests and donation of organs from cadavers is uploaded on official website...there is an urgent need to inculcate complete transparency, accountability and general awareness in the citizenry at large by the state", the court added, giving the Centre a week's time to file the affidavit.
The need to give this direction came up in a case concerning Agra resident Pawan Anand who had sought the court's permission for liver transplant for his mother from a close family friend. The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act however doesn't allow this in fact only near relatives are allowed to donate their organs and it can't be allowed if a relationship of 'love, affection and attachment' is not established.
Citing provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, Justice Shakdher said the Act "permits donation by a person, other than a 'near relative', for reasons of affection or attachment towards a recipient..." prohibits "commercial dealings" of human organs and there "will rarely be a direct evidence with regard to commercial dealings" which have to be inferred from the facts in each case.
Anand, in his petition, had challenged Director General of Health Services' refusal to allow liver donation for his ailing mother by his family friend. Pawan's 62-year-old mother, suffering from liver cirrhosis, had been advised urgent liver transplantation and had sought the sanction under the Act to receive the organ from Gulab Devi, 42, stated to be a family friend who was a tenant in her premises at Agra.
Apollo Hospital's authorization committee however denied permission claiming that the relationship between donor and recipient was akin to one of a master and caretaker and there was gross financial imbalance between the two.
The DGHS too had upheld the decision of the committee. The petition was filed in the high court against the decisions arrived at by the authorities below. Anand had alleged that the willing donor, in her affidavit made it clear she knew the recipient family since 1983 and their relationship is like a mother and her daughter.
"One cannot find fault with the conclusion of the authorities below that the offer of donation of a part of her liver by petitioner number 2, ie, the donor is not propelled by love and affection," Justice Shakdher said. The court, however, made it clear that dismissal of Urmila's plea would not come in the way if she enters into a "swapping transaction with relatives of similarly circumstanced families of patients who are willing to donate a part of their liver which matches the blood group of the recipient in the present case."
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