The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 - Preliminary

The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994

An Act to provide for the regulation of removal, storage and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes and for the prevention of commercial dealings in human organs and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Whereas it is expedient to provide for the regulation of removal, storage and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes and for the prevention of commercial dealings in human organs;

And whereas Parliament has no power to make laws for the States with respect to any of the matters aforesaid except as provided in Articles 249 and 250 of the Constitution;

And whereas in pursuance of clause (1) of Article 252 of the Constitution, resolutions have been passed by all the Houses of the Legislatures of the States of Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra to the effect that the matters aforesaid should be regulated in those States by Parliament by law;

Be it enacted by Parliament in the Forty-fifth Year of the Republic of India as follows: —

CHAPTER I-PRELIMINARY

1. Short title, application and commencement. — 

  (2) It applies, in the first instance, to the whole of the States of Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra and to all the Union territories and it shall also apply to such other States which adopts this Act by resolution passed in that behalf under clause (1) of Article 252 of the Constitution.

  (3) It shall come into force in the States of Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra and in all the Union territories on such as the Central Government may, by notification, appoint and in any other State which adopts this Act under clause (1) of Article 252 of the Constitution, on the date of such adoption; and any reference in this Act to the commencement of this Act shall, in relation to any State or Union territory, means the date on which this Act comes into force in such State or Union territory.

2. Definitions. —  In this Act, unless the con otherwise requires. —

(a) “advertisement” includes any form of advertising whether to the public generally or to any section of the public or individually to selected persons;

(b) “Appropriate Authority” means  the Appropriate Authority appointed under Section 13;

(c) “Authorisation Committee” means the committee constituted under clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (4) of Section 9;

(d) “brain-stem death” means the stage at which all functions of the brain-stem have permanently and irreversibly ceased and is so certified under sub-section (6) of Section 3;

(e) “deceased person” means a person in whom permanent disappearance of all evidence of life occurs, by reason of brain-stem death or in a cardio-pulmonary sense, at any time after live birth has taken place;

(f) “donor” means any person, not less than eighteen years of age, who voluntarily authorises the removal of any of his human organs for therapeutic purposes under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) of Section 3;

(g) “hospital” includes a nursing home, clinic, medical centre, medical or teaching institution for therapeutic purposes and other like institution;

(h) “human organ” means any part of a human body consisting of a structured arrangement of tissues which, if wholly removed, cannot be replicated by the body;

(i) “near relative” means spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, brother or sister;

(j) “notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette;

(k) “payment” means payment in money or money's worth but does not include any payment for defraying or reimbursing —

     (i) the cost of removing, transporting or preserving the human organ to be supplied; or

    (ii) any expenses or loss of earnings incurred by a person so far as reasonably and directly attributable to his supplying any human organ from his body;

(l) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(m) “recipient” means a person into whom any human organ is, or is proposed to be, transplanted;

(n) “registered medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner who possesses any recognised medical qualification as defined in clause (h) of Section 2 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (102 of 1956), and who is enrolled on a State Medical Register as defined in clause (k) of that section;

(o) “therapeutic purposes” means systematic treatment of any disease or the measures to improve health according to any particular method or modality; and

(p) “transplantation” means the grafting of any human organ from any living person or deceased person to some other living person for therapeutic purposes.