Honouring organ donors a good idea

At a time when an acute shortage of organs continues to cost lives, Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao’s proposal to evolve a policy to recognise and honour organ donors needs to be welcomed. Organ failure is one of the leading causes of morbidities, with many needy patients losing their lives because of the lack of organs. For over a decade, India’s organ donation rate has been lower than one donor per million population, while it exceeds 40 per million in many Western countries. According to Union health ministry data, the number of donors, including the deceased, increased from 6,916 in 2014 to a little over 16,000 in 2023, a dismal record.  Organs from one deceased person can save eight to 10 lives with a transplant of the heart, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, liver, intestines, hands, tissues, bone marrow and stem cells. A majority of live donors are female—wives, sisters, mothers. According to transplant experts, organs of both the living and the dead are being wasted for want of awareness not only among the general public, but also among medical practitioners and policy makers. Added to  this is the absence of a clear policy on organ procurement from unclaimed bodies.

Recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had announced that the last rites of those who had donated organs would be performed with state honours. Society also owes a debt of gratitude to the relatives of the brain dead, who decide to donate their loved ones’ organs at a time of mourning. Tamil Nadu, which was the first state to set up a transplant authority in 2008, leads the country in organ donation. Gundu Rao has proposed to send a team to the neighbouring state to study the policies there and implement them in Karnataka. The state has also taken steps to honour organ donors or their relatives every year, while holding programmes by involving religious heads to dispel myths and misconceptions about organ donation.

Besides launching a campaign to encourage donations, Karnataka has decided to strengthen the infrastructure in government hospitals and promote a healthy lifestyle to reduce the need for transplants. However, it needs to be acknowledged that bureaucratic red tape is one of the biggest hurdles in organ donation, though both the Union and state governments have taken steps to ease the procedures. Karnataka would do well to set up an expert committee to identify and remove all the roadblocks so that the donors and recipients face no hurdles. Though the government has taken the right step in deciding to honour the donors, much more needs to be done.