Establish hospital-based committees to approve organ transplants: HC to govt

Kochi: The high court has instructed the state govt to establish hospital-based committees to approve organ transplants, as mandated by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules, 2014.Currently, all applications for organ transplantation approval are being considered by district-level authorisation committees (DLAC) since the hospital-based committees have yet to be notified. However, the Rules mandate the formation of hospital-based committees for hospitals performing 25 or more transplants annually. Citing this requirement, the bench of Justice V G Arun directed the state to constitute hospital-based committees without delay.The bench also noted that the district-level committees are not fully compliant with the rules, which call for the inclusion of individuals with expertise in various fields on the authorisation committees. According to the Rules, the committees should include two persons (preferably one woman) of high integrity, social standing, and credibility, who have served in the higher judiciary, senior police service, as a reader or professor in a University Grants Commission-approved university, or are lawyers, chartered accountants, doctors from the Indian Medical Association, or renowned social workers. The bench asked the state to ensure compliance in this regard.The directive was issued in a petition seeking approval for a kidney transplant, where the donor had no blood relation with the recipient. Previously, the district-level committee rejected the application, suspecting commercial motives behind the donation. During the hearing, the petitioner's counsel argued that since the donor had expressed a willingness to donate his organ out of love and affection for the recipient, he should not be required to provide evidence of such intangibles, like old photographs, as directed by the provisions. The counsel added that the absence of photographs alone should not lead to the conclusion that the donor and recipient are strangers.The bench agreed, stating that the absence of photographs should not be a reason to reject the donor's claim that he volunteered to donate his organ out of love and affection. Subsequently, the bench allowed the petition and directed the district-level committee to reconsider the application within 10 days.
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