Lekhi urges society to take up organ donation

An organ donation drive was today launched by Lok Sabha member Meenakshi Lekhi who exhorted the society to take up the cause and contribute to saving lives.
"I grew up with a philosophy which taught me that the essence of a person is his or her soul and the body is only a vehicle for the soul. When a person dies, the soul leaves his or her body and the body disintegrates into five elements.
"However, if parts of the body are donated to a living person in need of those organs, then these serve to increase the lifespan of the recipient. This is why organ donation is a very noble cause," she said.

The BJP leader was speaking at a function held here by NGO Parashar Foundation, which works for spreading awareness about organ donation.
The MP from New Delhi said as a young child she was inspired after reading about Dr Christiaan Barnard, a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human heart transplant operation in 1967.
"His story was an inspiration to me and this marked the beginning of my inquisitiveness and concern about organ donation. Today, India has made a lot of progress in the field of organ donation," she said.

"A person's organs go waste after his or her death, whereas these could have been donated and transplanted into the body of someone in need to give the recipient a new lease of life," she was quoted as saying in a statement by the NGO.

"Numerous efforts have been made in the field of science to create artificial organs that can be transplanted. These efforts, however, have not been significantly successful.
"Until fully functional artificial organs can be created, which can be transplanted into the bodies of those in need, organ donation is immensely important. The dead continue to 'live' beyond their death when their organs are used to help another person live," Lekhi said.