JOIN USScientists, professors, and other experts from medical science condemned the decision of the Kerala government, and the Kerala high court’s direction to compensate altruistic organ donors with an amount of Rs 2 lakh.
The medical professionals were attending the 11th Annual Transplant Coordinators Conference 2018. The conference is part of the 14th World Congress of Bioethics, held in India for the first time, at the St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences.
At the transplant coordinators meet, the health professionals spoke about the ways and means to make organ transplant free of monetary gain and to encourage deceased organ donation.
Dr Dominique Martin, Ex Co-Chair, Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group (DICG) and a faculty at Deakin University, Australia said that the compensation mooted by the government discourages the whole purpose of making organ donation a free-for-all.
“I think there shouldn’t be monetary gain either to the donor or to the recipient when it comes to organ donation. India is catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to deceased organs donated from brain-dead individuals,” she added.
Lalitha Raghuram from the Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (Mohan), Hyderabad, said that compared to a few years ago, organ trafficking has reduced as deceased organ donation received a boost.