Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Make organ transplantation affordable' that was published in Newsband

Make organ transplantation affordable

Transplantation of human organs is today a mature programme in many States. Hence it is possible for people with kidney, liver, heart and lung failure to extend their lives. Heart and lung transplants are expensive as compared to kidney and liver procedures.

The organs that are altruistically donated by families of brain-dead people should be given to recipients ethically. It was found that allotment of hearts and lungs has been made to foreign patients in Tamil Nadu — in 2017, foreigners accounted for 25% of heart transplants and 33% of lung transplants.

Organs should go to the most suitable recipients on the rule-based parameters of domicile, citizenship, Indian origin and foreign nationality, in that order. Heart and lung transplants are complicated procedures. Few Indian patients are willing to opt for one, compared to kidney and liver.

Tamil Nadu offers a subsidy for poor patients for a liver transplant. The authorities should cover such issues as the capacity of district-level hospitals to perform transplants, and arrangements to air-lift organs, since domestic patients are unable to afford flight facilities. Such measures will make it possible to utilise more hearts and lungs, and offer them to domestic recipients. Nothing should be done to erode the confidence of the kin of brain-dead people who donate organs with no expectation of gain.

Doctors are believed to be next to "God" in India. People come to them with the hope that they will put all the mismatched things in place, everything will be alright, everything will be perfect. They should not be biased to the national locals by giving more preference to the foreigners just to fill their pockets. If money is all they want than there are myriads of options available in the market for making it. They should not have pursued this career, which is the most respectable one in the world.

A life saved is a life gifted. A poor man's life helps the family. But even with all concessions, it is beyond the capacity of the poor to go for organ transplantation. He or she has to take costly drugs life-long. Commercialisation of health services is unacceptable, but hard to abolish or restrict. More government hospitals should have the facility to undertake organ transplantation.

There must be fair allocations of the organs as per the organ donation rules and priority for the citizens rather than foreigners. Commercialising organ transplant if any should be eliminated and the State has to maintain its reputation for fair distribution of organs forever.