Organ donation: Rise after Covid-19

Organ donation numbers in 2021 were close to the highest in the last five years.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused organ donation rates to decline during the first year, although they recovered in 2021.
However, according to data submitted by the government in Parliament, the number of deceased donations of organs made by the family members of those who had cardiac or brain death has remained lower than that of live individuals.
Only 1,743 (a little more than 14%) of the 12,387 organs taken in 2021, including kidneys, liver, hearts, lungs, and pancreas, were from deceased donors.
The statistics are skewed in favour of living donations, such as kidney and liver transplants made by living relatives.

Organ donation is the transfer of biological tissue or an organ from a living or deceased donor to a recipient still alive and in need of a transplant.
In a transplant, an unhealthy person’s organ or tissue is swapped out for a healthy person’s, restoring the function of the unhealthy organ or tissue.
Types of organ donation
- Living Donation
  - A living person makes a living donation when they provide an organ (or a portion of an organ) for transplantation to another individual.
- Donation from a deceased cadaver(corpse)
  - An organ or part of an organ given at the time of the donor’s death.
  - Donated after the donor is declared brain dead.
  - Brain death is the total and irreversible loss of all brain functions.
  - Brain-dead persons are kept on ventilators (artificial support) to ensure all organs remain oxygenated and healthy until harvest.

Legislation
- The Indian government published The Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) in 1994.
- The Transplantation of Human Organs Rules, which expanded the definition of donation and added tissues for transplantation, came in 1995 and underwent their most recent revision in 2014.
- The act criminalised the sale of organs, formalised the idea of brain death in India, and permitted deceased organ donation using the brain stems of the deceased.
Institution
- A national-level institution under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO).
- It also establishes policy guidelines and norms for specific tasks and coordinates all national efforts related to organ donation.

Current system
- In India, a person must register to donate organs, and the family must provide their approval after death.
- Even with a donor card, the family must give permission for organ donation if someone passes away.
- Harvesting of the organs is not done if the family declines.
Less awareness
- More individuals need to be made aware of organ transplants so they can sign up to donate.
Transport infrastructure
- Firstly, a good transportation system connecting states and cities might encourage the donation of organs.
- Furthermore, to make it easier to create green lanes for quicker organ delivery, there needs to be better collaboration between the Road, Railway, and Aviation Ministries.

Public hospitals need to expand their infrastructure to perform transplants and give the poor access to affordable, high-quality care to improve the availability of donated organs to weaker populations.
Cross-subsidization is supposed to make the weaker segment more accessible.
Private hospitals should provide free transplants to the segment of the community that donates the bulk of their organs for every three to four transplants.
The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, has to be changed so that self-declaration.
Furthermore, required verification involving civil society can take the place of the rigid bureaucratic approach used by hospitals.

Pic Courtesy: freepik

Content Source: Indian Express