Organ donation is an altruistic activity to save a precious life. Sadly, the illegal organ trade is a threat to any society. It’s the black market where the poor are being cheated, incentivized, targeted, or even trafficked for stealing organs and selling them.
There are two types of organ donation and they are the altruistic and non-altruistic. Organ donation has become a big part of many lives because it helps various families to sustain. With altruistic organ donation, a person decides to donate his/her organs to help other people, especially those who are in need of an organ transplant. The organ that is donated can either be from the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys or bones.
Altruistic organ donation saves a precious life and help many families to sustain. It usually involved a conscious and well think decision and thus is a noble way to save other’s lives by donation of sometimes literally dead people.
Organ transplantation has given great new hope to many patients of organ failure, who couldn't be treated any other way. With the advancement in medical science, it is possible to transplant any organ from one individual to the another. Many individuals choose altruistic organ donation but with a shortage of donor organs and rising demand, this practice is not sustainable.
Organ donation is a noble cause. Even though the provision of organs and tissues for transplantation is one of the major aims of healthcare, India lags terribly behind. Globally, Spain has the highest organ donation rate at about 34 donors per million, while India has nearly 0.03 donors per million. In India, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of organ donations, both in absolute as well as in relative terms and a large section of these came from deceased donors.
Organ donation is an entirely voluntary act. It cannot be forced on someone. The decision to pledge the organs should come from a genuine heart and not as an incentive or obligation to others. In India, there is a huge disparity between both demand and supply of organs for transplantation, especially for kidneys. India needs an estimated 6 lakh kidney donations annually, only 6,000 kidney transplants take place. The number of heart transplants is just inching close to 500.
National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) under the ministry of health and family welfare, was set up in 2014, to oversee the process of Organ transplantation. The main purpose of NOTTO is to make sure that transplantation practices are carried out in a transparent manner. It aims to stop these organ donations from being used for money-making schemes like selling organs on a short-term basis. In the past, organs were sold at exorbitant rates but NOTTO has ensured that now only those people who are willing to donate their organs after death will be compensated.
Article 246 of the Constitution, which deals with the legislative powers of the Union and the States, states that subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Parliament has exclusive power to make laws for the whole or any part of India with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the State List. This basically means that either national government or respective state governments can make laws dealing with a number of areas including public health.
Organ trade is an illegal business in India. The organs are sold without any kind of medical checkup. A black market has been active for over a decade in India and the rate at which organ transplant is increasing, this is a matter of grave concern for the nation.
Organ trade in India like other problems such as child labor has a societal issue to it. It relates to the exploitation of the poverty-stricken people by alluring them with financial gains. The illegal organ trade in India is a rapidly growing market, primarily driven by the increasing demand for organs for transplants.
Criminal and money-minded businessmen are roaring to cash on it. So desperate are these poor donors that they don't even bother to check who their recipients are. The hospital authorities get their money from the businessmen and give just a pittance to these poor people and promise them more as soon as they receive a phone call about the transplant operation being successful.
In India, illegal organ trade has assumed alarming proportions. There has also been exploitation of the donors from the lower-income groups. The usual scenario driving these poverty-stricken people is desperation for monetary payments. Some are under pressure from loan sharks and others to pay off for some major family costs.
Like child labour and prostitution, the ethics of organ donations is much more complex in our country and these are part of the corrupt fabric of our society. The country provides many hamlets of poverty that are fertile area for any kind of exploitation.
A number of articles have appeared in the press about the illegal commercial trade in organs. These organs are removed from poor and marginalised people and given to better off patients. This is done with consent from the donor perhaps out of dire medical need if they are in need of money for survival or because they are under pressure from organized crime networks.
The right to life is a cardinal principle of the Constitution of India. At the same time, allowing commercial exploitation of body parts is not in consonance with the same.
Central govt. should bring a law that would make it compulsory for an individual to donate at least one of his organs, in exchange for a minimum stipulated amount of money.
To save lives, the government is toying with the idea of bringing in an ‘opt-out’ law; a system where organ donation will be automatic unless an explicit request is made before death for organs not to be taken.
Organ donation can save the lives of people who have been waiting for ages for a compatible donor. In India, legislation to facilitate organ donations is available, however; it's not effective because of its lack of implementation.
Organ donation is an act of great humanism and generosity. It has been a topic of intense debate in India for over a decade now. India has been unable to move forward on the issue to date because of the huge complexities involved and demands of equally complex solutions. One simple solution would be the adoption of Spain’s mechanism where everyone is considered a potential donor.
