India has been witnessing a thriving trade in human organs especially for kidney for the last some years with a steady rise in diabetes and renal diseases among the country’s population. In fact the kidney trade grew into an organized racket around several hospitals and nursing homes with the direct involvement of some of the doctors. This had eventually drawn the economically weaker sections of the society into this illegal trade through the agents and middlemen. The government has been working on how to bring an end to this illegal activity for the last twenty years. It was in this background the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 was brought in  to  make the organs transplantation more transparent and patient friendly. But the Act has not been effective enough to bring a check on the organs trade. At the same time, the Act made it difficult for genuine donors to help the patients due to the complicated and long drawn process involving organ donation.  An amendment to the Act was thus proposed and Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Bill  was introduced in Lok Sabha way back on December 18, 2009. But it could not bee passed then as it was referred to the Parliamentary standing committee attached to the union health ministry for its scrutiny. The standing committee has laid the report on the table of Lok Sabha in August, 2010 and it is expected to be passed during the current session with stringent clauses of penalties on persons and hospitals violating the Act.

The scope for organ transplant procedures has been widened  today and are being carried out not only for  kidney but also for pancreas, liver, lung, heart and bone marrow. Yet,the largest number of transplants is for kidney and nearly one lakh people develop End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) every year. This is in addition to 20 lakh persons who are already suffering from the dreaded disease. The amended Bill has certain new features like expansion of the definition of the term ‘near relatives’ to include grandparents and grandchildren. The amendment makes it mandatory for the ICU and Treating Medical Staff to request relatives of brain dead patients for organ donation. The provision regulating the transplantation of organs for foreign nationals and  swap donations of organs are the other two key features. The Bill also provides for establishment of a National Organ Retrieval, Banking & Transplantation Network and development and maintenance of a national registry of the recipients of organ transplants. It seeks to create the position of a ‘Transplant Coordinator’ in all hospitals registered for organ retrieval and transplantation. The new provisions in the bill seem  adequate enough to streamline organ transplantation procedures in the country in the coming years. But, a lot of follow up work needs to be done by health departments of states and Union territories to make this comprehensive law  a success.