NEW DELHI: India has finalized a legislation that will outlaw trade in human organs in India and pave the way for selective removal of organs from dead bodies.
A bill on this is likely to be introduced in parliament soon, following cabinet approval last week of an expert committee report on a comprehensive legislation on use of human organs, health ministry officials said.
The legislation is aimed at putting an end to the widespread practice of buying of organs from living donors. It will also allow doctors to retrieve organs from brain dead individuals whose hearts are still beating.
Although a majority of transplant doctors have welcomed the move, a few have ex pressed concern that an outright ban on sale of organs might force the trade in human organs to go underground, and create an “organ black-market”.
Under the proposed legalizations, human organs will be a prohibited offence, and those involved in such a transaction could be punished by a fine up to R.s 20,000, or imprisonment ranging from three to seven years.
The legislation will cover the removal of all transplantable organs from brain-dead. Persons including the liver, heart and pancreas which are currently not trans planted in India.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 8, 1991
