Lakhs of organ-failure patients across India need a transplant to stay alive. The only way to meet the galloping demand is donation after death. But for most of us, the idea is still alien and unbearable. It needn't be so
Six months after the government launched the Jeevandan scheme to boost organ transplant from brain dead donors, cadaver organ donation has taken a big leap in the state even as organ donation dropped to an all-time low in rest of the country.
Kalpana Tiwari became a role model of sorts for others with her organs being donated to the needy after she was pronounced 'brain dead' by doctors.
You know how a lot of wedding invites come bearing a ‘No gifts please’ tag at the bottom? That seems to be changing these days. A lot of socially conscious youngsters would rather use the special occasion — be it a wedding, a birthday or an anniversary, as an opportunity to do their bit for society, while also encouraging their family and friends to chip in.
Instead of simplifying the process for organ donation, the Centre seems to be imposing more bureaucratic hurdles and adding to the trauma of donors' family members.
Ever determined to work towards the betterment of society, Lalitha Raghuram took it upon herself to spread awareness about organ donation and rid the misconceptions that our society attaches to it.
That Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh died last year in a Chennai hospital failing to secure a liver transplant on time underscores India’s acute organ transplantation crisis. Each year hundreds of Indians die while waiting for an organ transplant. The reason: there is acute imbalance between the number of organs donated and the number of people waiting for a transplant. Systemic hurdles and rigid social mindset further portends a bleak future for organ transplantation in India.
Tamil Nadu has had a tenuous link with organ donation. Once known as a “world centre” for the transplant tourism industry, the State has now reformed itself to lead the country in conducting its best cadaver transplant programme. The British Medical Journal has paid rare and rich praise to the State for achieving this turn around.
Over the last five days in Tamil Nadu, seven large-hearted people and their families have made the ultimate sacrifice – organ donation, so that many others can live on.
A global paucity of organ supply has pushed international organ trade up by a few notches in the recent times. A rising health policy issue around the globe, poor and vulnerable groups of people today are susceptible to illegal organ trafficking. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 5-10 per cent of the 1,00,000 organs transplanted each year globally have been purchased illegally from poor people desperate for cash.
