Organ Donation Crash Course in the ICU

Patients admitted in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in hospitals will be told about organ donation by their doctors after the Union Cabinet approved amendments to the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.

Some 100 hospitals are presently registered under the Transplantation Act. Under the new rules patients in ICUs will be asked if they have applied for organ donation.

"This provision exists in the new Act. But its notification will be staggered. We will first start with impressing ICU patients about eye donation. Once this trend catches up, we will talk about donation of other vital organs," a health ministry spokesperson told the Times of India.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the main purpose of the Act is to regulate the removal, storage and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes and to prevent commercial dealings in human organs.

Source-Medindia
RAS