Need to make organ donations a social movement: Nadda

Union Health Minister J P Nadda today stressed the need to create a system for safe and effective organ-donation and make it a social movement, saying the demand for organs will grow "manifold" in future due to increased lifestyle diseases.
Terming organ donation as "altruistic, egalitarian and essentially moral act", Nadda urged the people to come forward and donate organs to save lives.
"The demand for organs continue to increase manifold in future keeping in view the increased incidence of lifestyle diseases.
"So, there is a need to create a system for improving the rate of safe, effective and ethical donation of cadaver organs for transplantation in needy," Nadda said addressing a function here.

The Health Minister also sought suggestions to encourage people for organ and body donations and assured that government would not delay in its implementation.
"The Ministry has started taking concrete steps for harvesting of cadaver organs and tissues and hope that the government will be able to optimally utilise this vast national resource," he said.

Nadda said the benefits of initiatives should reach out to every nook and corner of the country and not be limited to cities only.
The Health Minister said that organ donation can benefit the recipient largely by improving health, quality and span of his life and even save him from death or other critical conditions.

Special DGHS B D Athani said the government was taking various steps to simplify organ donor laws and procedures and 13,443 donors have already pledged for organ donation.
He said the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation website provides updated information and online facility for registering pledges for organ donation.
Athani said a 24x7 call centre with toll-free helpline has been established for providing information on organ donation and coordinating matters relating to retrieval and allocation of organs recovered from cadaver donors.