In early 2007, a kidney scam surfaced, as a result of which, the government decided to arrest commercialization of live kidney transplants and to promote the growth of deceased donor organ transplants in the State. With this object in view, the Health & Family Welfare Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu organized a Workshop in March 2007, co-sponsored by NNOS. Representatives and senior doctors from several transplant hospitals all over Tamil Nadu participated in this day-long workshop. To highlight the importance attached to this exercise the Hon’ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare and the Principal Secretary to Government, Health & Family Welfare Department participated in both the inaugural session in the morning and the valedictory session in the afternoon.
The Workshop participants were organized into four Working Groups that deliberated on these issues: 1. Live donors 2. Transplantation Formalities 3. Cadaver Transplant 4. Coordinating Organization. At the valedictory session the moderators of the Working Groups presented a total of 33 recommendations for follow up action.
The Government gave serious consideration to these recommendations and held frequent consultations with the stakeholders. As a result of this, a series of Government Orders were issued – see Annexure 3 – to lay down a set of norms that would supplement the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) and its Rules – see Annexures 1&2 – and establish a framework through which organs can be allotted in a fair manner to the potential recipients that await organ transplantation.
By the time these government orders were in place, the case of a doctor couple donating the heart of their young son who died in a traffic accident to save the life of a young girl, got wide publicity and made an emotional connection with the people at large. This, as well as the publicity some more donations got, spurred voluntary offers from relatives of brain dead persons. Such positive publicity is of crucial importance; a survey conducted among nearly 4000 households in Chennai in mid 1998 by NNOS with the help of student volunteers showed that awareness on cadaveric donation was low even among the educated persons and people were confusing this too with kidney scams. See Annexure 7.
These two worked together to create a momentum for organ donations. To sustain and increase the momentum, it is necessary that hospitals in the state become fully aware of all the government orders and cooperate fully with the system to achieve its goals.