HC junks Pakistani national's plea for liver transplantation

Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea of a Pakistani national, who is battling for life due to chronic kidney and liver failure here, seeking permission to undergo transplantation of liver tissue donated by one of her family friends based in Karachi.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva rejected the plea in which the patient's wife and the proposed donor had challenged the orders of the authorisation committee and appellate authority which had dismissed their representations on the ground that there was no relationship between them.
"The authorisation committee as well as the appellate authority had held that they could not rule out possibility of a commercial transaction between the two. The petitioner has not been able to establish any link or connection or any affection or attachment or special reason as to why the donor has consented to donate the liver tissue to the recipient," the court said.

"Though it may be a hard case from the point of view of the petitioner number one (patient) but the statute has to be strictly complied with to ensure that there is no trafficking or commercial angle involved in transplantation of human organs or tissue," it observed.
The court, however, in its order said that "in case any application is filed by the wife of petitioner No 1 seeking to donate her liver tissue to the petitioner, such application would be considered by the respondents in accordance with law without being influenced by anything stated in this order."
Karachi-based Syeda Noor Afsan had approached the court saying the condition of her 46-year-old husband Sulaiman Mohammad was critical and deteriorating and immediate transplantation surgery was needed to save his life.

She had said she would donate one of her kidneys for the surgery but as per doctors, she cannot donate liver tissues which was needed for the transplant and Karachi-based Humaira Muddaser, one of her friends, was willing to donate liver tissues for the surgery on "humanitarian ground".
40-year-old Afsan had told the court that her husband was diagnosed with acute chronic liver failure at a hospital in Karachi, after which she came to Delhi and doctors here had advised kidney and liver transplant for him.