Higher compensation for kidney donors

August 14, 2004

Ludhiana -- The International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO) has come forward to save the lives of thousands of kidney transplant patients who are breathing their last breath for lack of kidney donors and approached the state High Court for laying rules and guidelines, seeking relief for the patients, urging handsome compensation for donors and relieving treating doctors from harassment.

"The IHRO does not rule out commercial dealings in cases relating to unrelated kidney donors," said its chairperson D.S. Gill, secretary general Mohinder Singh Grewal and secretary administration Avtar Singh Gill, in a statement issued here today, adding that the ambiguous provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act are responsible for breeding commercialisation and corruption as is apparent from many incidents in India, including the Amritsar kidney scam of 2002.

The IHRO activists elaborated that whatever had made or received any payment for sale or purchase of any human organ or was in anyway connected with its trade was a culprit and liable to be punished under the Act. "And that is debatable internationally and needs to be rethought," they said.

The IHRO activists expressed concern over the unusual delay caused in the treatment of patients suffering from kidney failure who were dying due to stoppage of unrelated donor transplantations by many hospitals in the state.

For this the IHRO has constituted a team of five medico-legal experts to suggest ways and means to favour (compensate) unrelated donors and to provide relief to the dying patients (recipients) and the team will also suggest medico-ethics for treating consultants and transplant surgeons in lieu of the fact that they have stopped unrelated donor transplants.

The activists said, "The IHRO is now a party to a writ petition regarding the kidney scam pending in the High Court and will plead for laying down of rules and guidelines in order to save the lives of kidney patients, compensating the donors and relieving the doctors from harassment, in view of the Supreme Court's decision."

Copyright © 2004 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

This article posted Septembere 10, 2004.