Majority of live organ donors in state are women

The majority of living donors in Karnataka are women. This mimics the trend nationally, and globally, too, where female living organ donors exceed male counterparts.

There are two types of authorisation committees — at the hospital level and at the state level. In hospitals with less than 25 transplants a year, the state authorisation committee examines all cases where a living donor wants to donate and sees if there are any commercial transactions involved and whether the donor and recipient are really close family members.

In hospitals where there are more than 25 transplants conducted in a year, living donor or cadaveric, there is a hospital-based authorisation committee that talks to the living donor and ascertains if the donation is being made for altruistic reasons or due to pressure and coercion.

Manipal Hospital is one such where most donors are women and most recipients are men. "It's a cultural issue and our own statistics show that more than three-fourths of the donors are women, usually mothers, sisters and wives," Dr Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Hospital said.

Around 75%-80% donors are women and 75%-80% recipients are men. "This is especially so among spouses. Among spousal donations, 90 per cent donors are wives. Around 10% are husbands. Since it is rare for husbands to donate, if they donate we call them good men," Ballal said.

"Cultural reasons include conditioning of women where they're taught to give more than take. Since we live in a patriarchal set up, there's coercion. We've had instances where the women were persuaded to donate and we tell the family they're not clinically fit to donate so that they don't force them. Women are also more sensitive and passionate. These are the reasons why we see women giving rather than taking," Ballal said.

Dr Keshavamurthy R, Director, Institute of Nephro Urology, who was a member of the state authorisation committee said, "I totally agree with the fact that it is women who agree readily for organ donation. It is the kind-heartedness and empathy pf either the mother, spouse or sisters who take care of the family who come forward."

However, Dr NS Nagesh, HOD, Surgical Gastroenterology, Pradhan Mantri Super Specialty (PMSSY) Hospital on Victoria Hospital campus had a different take on the subject. "Donations are more by women because sclerosis is more among men than women. It can be because of reasons like fatty liver or hepatitis or alcoholism. Their habits cause these conditions because of which women come forward." Sclerosis is the stiffening of a tissue usually caused by a replacement of the normal organ-specific tissue with connective tissue.