Lack of public awareness is standing in the way of thousands of people being able to secure a new lease of life through cadaver transplants. It has been reported that not a single cadaver transplant has been conducted in Karnataka since 2005, when the state government set up a Zonal Co-ordination Committee of Karnataka (ZCCK) for Transplantation.  If cadaver organ transplants are not taking place in Karnataka it is not because there is no demand for this. About  80 patients have been registered for cadaver organ transplant. The number that would benefit from such transplant is likely to be far higher, given the fact that many are unaware of this option or of the need to register themselves for such transplant to take place.  Cadaver transplants are not taking place because of public ignorance and official apathy. There is resistance to the idea of donating organs from the body of a loved one; people want to perform the last rites on the body with all its organs intact. They are unaware that a brain dead person is in effect dead.
The government needs to educate the public on the value of cadaver transplants. People need to realise that the body of one brain dead person can provide a new lease of life to at least seven others.  Official apathy too has stood in the way of cadaver transplants. The ZCCK has dragged its feet with regard to framing rules. There are vested interests too - those in the illegal organ trade – that would not like to see cadaver transplants happen as that will bite into their profit margins.
Karnataka has much to learn from Tamil Nadu’s energetic approach to cadaver transplants. Only  43 cadaver transplants have been performed in the state over a decade compared with 314 in half that period in Tamil Nadu.  Much of the credit for Tamil Nadu’s relatively good performance must go to the lead role played by the Multiple Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN). The NGO has not only created public awareness about what cadaver transplant entails and its benefits but also co-ordinated work between hospitals so that organs available in one hospital can be transplanted in another where there are patients with a need for such organs. Karnataka needs the dynamic leadership of such public-minded civil society organisations.