It started when Delhi High Court instructed the Union Health ministry to
revisit the Act in the wake of a complicated case involving donor, recipient and transplantation centres of three different states.

A government committee headed by S Y Quereshi – present Election Commissioner who was then a senior health ministry official – came out with recommendations, many of which – felt by the some doctors and ministry officials – were “sweeping in nature”.

Another round of consultation was subsequently held in collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and once again the suggestions were internally discussed before the ministry framed the present set of proposed amendments. Since parliamentary approvals are required, it may take a year before the changes come into effect.

Increasing the minimum punishment from few months to two years is a key component of the amendments as it was felt that enhancement of the jail term would act as a deterrent. Overall imprisonment will be between two and seven years depending on the nature of the crime.

The amendment will make it mandatory for all hospitals to register themselves with the government before organ harvesting. The ministry intends to have at least 200 such hospitals – majority of which are trauma care centres adjacent to a highway – where facilities will be available.

These harvesting centres, in turn, will be linked to specialised transplantation centres. All will have transplantation coordinators whose job will be to facilitate speedy transplants.

ORBOs for big cities
As a part of the upcoming national programme on organ donation, the government intends to create 11 organ retrieval and banking organisations (ORBO) in major cities, including Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. The ORBOs will be a part of major hospitals – preferably government hospitals – and will render the touts engaged in kidney rackets redundant by finding appropriate donors and recipients.

In addition, new rules and executive orders are in the pipeline, which will make the process simple and transparent for the needy. “If the law is too rigorous, then it will not help the needy. If it’s too relaxed, then trading will be boosted,” says a health ministry official explaining the catch-22 situation. An online register of all
transplant cases has been conceived.

Other changes include widening the scope of the state authorisation committee and making it mandatory to carry out all tests from laboratories certified by the National Accredited Board for Laboratories (NABL).

Transplant surgeons have deliberately been kept outside the authorisation panel and swapping of organs between couples is going to be permitted. But to prevent kidney marriage, the authorisation committee will have to check the veracity of marriage in a detailed manner rather than relying on just a marriage certificate.

-KR