To create more awareness about organ donation and to simply procedures of consent taking and to eliminate unethical practices in organ donation government should link organ donation programme with Aadhar cards.
According to Dr Bhaskar Rao, managing director at Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences in Secunderabad, the state and central governments should give a provision for the people to exercise open options to donate their organs while applying for Aadhar cards. Anybody wishing to donate organs can tick an option and it will be registered in the Aadhar card.
Giving provisions of independently opting organ donation, Aadhar card holders will not only create awareness but also helps in realising its importance among the public irrespective of their religion, cast and creed. “There are lot of ethical issues involved with respect to organ donation in India. It is the responsibility of the government to bring clear-cut regulations that not only protects the rights of the donors, but at the same time it should also help facilitate organ donations, which will save the lives of needy,” said Dr Rao.
As the central government is also planning to establish a centralised system for organ donation in the country, Dr Rao has advocated that the government should come forward to facilitate easy transportation of organs during emergency. “As in America, India should also employ flying transport system so that it will facilitate easy and fast transport of organs from one place to other (from donor to the recipient) in the country”, said Rao.
Unlike a few years ago, the awareness level among public regarding organ donation is improving. Today more people are voluntarily coming to donate their organs. But the challenge is to create a data base of donors and recipients is importance. At present the Jeevandhaan programme implemented both by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states is functioning effectively as it has not only linked up with many hospitals but it is also effectively working to develop an integrated data base of donors and recipients in the state.
The need of the hour is the governments should come out with more regulatory changes in the cadaver transplants and it should support the programme by providing better storage facilities and transportation facilities. The government should also use the available technology, research facilities and bring out new rules to make organ donation mandatory, as is done in Tamil Nadu. “Because of superstitions, blind beliefs and religious or ethnical sentiments, millions of organs are going waste in the country. If there is a proper system with transparency we can save thousands of patients who are waiting for donors. There is a huge waiting list of people for liver, kidney, lungs and hearts in the country, but because of lack of donor and non availability of organs, these people are just waiting for their turn to die,” says Rao.