Tamil Nadu

Organs transplantation panel’s verdict on Web

Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI: For the first time, the verdict of the Authorisation Committee constituted under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, allowing or disallowing organ donation by live, unrelated donors, has been made public. The results of the meeting for renal transplantation held on June 22 are available on the website www.tnhealth.org.

Details provided include names of the hospital, patient and donor, result of the interview and remarks. Where the donors had been rejected earlier, the reasons have been given. Information on the Web shows all seven applicants were cleared by the Committee on June 22. . The applications were forwarded by Coimbatore Kidney Centre, Coimbatore; Sri Ramachandra University, Porur; and Apollo Hospital, Chennai.

The move to post the details on the Web is part of an effort by the State Government to introduce transparency in the proceedings of the Committee, which came under fire after an organ sale racket was exposed in north Chennai early this year.

There were complaints that the Committee’s decision was often not communicated to the donor/applicant and the reasons for rejecting the donor were not provided. This made the process murky, transplant surgeons had been claiming. Of late, the Committee has been insisting that hospitals verify the antecedents of the donor and certify that he or she is genuine, to reduce chances of foul play.

The website mentions that the head of the institution should intimate the dates of surgery of the approved person to the Directorate of Medical Education, under whose purview the Authorisation Committee functions. The details have to be provided by the hospitals, which also have to produce the donor before the Committee for a check-up one to three months after the surgery. This seeks to address complaints about chronic neglect of persons who are duped into selling their kidney, after surgery.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu