Eye donation clause from the 'Medical Certification for the cause of Death' [MCD] form of Brihanmumbai Muncipal Corporation is missing. The senior officials of BMC have no acceptable reasons to provide for its deletion from the MCD, which is to be filled as part of the death certification process. The only probable reason they gave was the clause had become vestigial and not required at all.
In fact the MCD form has also been changed. Earlier there used to be only a single MCD form [Form No 8] with the twelfth clause being on eye donation. It has been now cut into two forms Form No. 4 and 4A, excluding the eye donation clause.
In the old version [Form No. 8], eye donation clause used to read like this - "Whether the deceased has given willingness for the donation of eyes? [Yes or no]."
The officials did not think that the removal of the clause would seriously affect eye donations. Dr Arun Patkar, Deputy Executive Health Officer, BMC, said, "The removal of the clause from the death certification process will not affect eye donations as there are organ donation department with its own formalities to check whether the deceased had issued any willingness for donating his eyes or organs. Ours is a department only to find out the actual cause of death," said the official. As of now there has been no real benefit with the clause on the certificate as no organ claiming authority has referred to a death certificate for collecting organs, said Dr. Patkar.
The official maintained that nowhere in the history of death records has it been mentioned to include eye or organ donation clause with the death certificate. He showed versions of the BMC Act, 1960, Registered Birth and Death Act, 1969, Physicians Manual of Medical Certification of Cause of Death, Office of Registrar General, India, and latest revision of the ICD-WHO. "Nowhere in these documents has there been a mention of inclusion of eye or organ donation clause in the death certificates," said Dr. Patkar.
However, the official had no answer to the query on why the BMC had included the clause so far, when in no books was it made mandatory to do so. He did not know when the clause was included nor he could give any reasons on why it was removed or who was responsible for the removal of the clause.
Along with MCD, there have also been changes made on the Death Report [DR]. Earlier the DR used to be a single vertical form. Now it has been changed into a horizontal form, with separate legal and statistical information. Once the slip is filled the legal section is cut and kept in the legal records. The statistical information, with the statistical department of the BMC.
After the death of a person, the MCD and DR forms have to be filled by the BMC authorities as a part of the death certification process.