Redefining 'death': Organ transplants, donation may get a legal nudge

The government is considering changing the definition of "death" in the law on organ transplants. The proposed change is in the wake of an acute shortage of harvestable organs for transplantation, Livemint reported.

At present, in line with the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, doctors harvest organs from a patient who is declared brain stem cell dead. 

If a patient dies of natural causes, organs also stop working but in the case of brain death, the death certificate mentions the vital organs that are alive, like the heart, lungs, etc. Due to this, the patient's family thinks that the person is still alive. This difference in the definition has hampered the prospects of organ transplantation in the country.

Another challenge for doctors is to decide when is the right time to start counselling the patient's family members for consenting to organ donation.

According to doctors, organs harvested from a brain-dead person can save at least seven lives. In a metro city, at any given point of time about 10 patients are referred to intensive care units as braindead, according to the Livemint report.

Every year, many patients die on waiting lists at top hospitals to access life-saving organ transplants.

According to the report, in India, nearly 50,000 people need heart transplants, 200,000 need kidneys, and 100,000 each for liver and eye transplants every year. 

Against this demand, the supply is too less due to challenges like religious sensitivities, lack of infrastructure and awareness.

Organs have a short self-life post-retrieval from the body. For instance, the heart can only be stored for up to 6 hours.

A reform in the existing law on these lines can give a push to organ donation and transplantation in India.