God has gifted us with a beautiful body and till today scientists have not been able to make a simple cell leave apart a whole body . We have been advantageous over other creatures as along with this beautiful body , we have been rewarded with a brain and mind , we can think , judge , appreciate , analyse , sympathise , love , invent and what not . But with this , we are also born with a constant need for food , which makes us work , store grains , fight for food and for territories . With this some of us who are more skilful accumulate wealth and lead a easy life while some of us struggle for survival .
At times we reach a cross road , where in spite of best of efforts we are not able to make two ends meet and are forced to take some decisions which in normal course we shall not even think of doing . These difficulties are mostly financial . In such a scenario , a person may think of selling his property , land , house , and if the things become very difficult then one may think of selling an organ like kidney . Is it then wrong to sell ones own organ ?
I know a lady who sold her one kidney in order to treat her ailing husband who was suffering from cancer . She could get her husband treated with the help of the organ recipient who saw to it that her husband got best of treatment possible . In this situation , a person could get life with the lady’s kidney and the lady’s husband could survive with the help of financial support . Was it unethical then ?
There are situations where a person develops kidney failure due to inherited diseases like diabetes or polycystic kidney disease . There are high chances that the other family members will develop the same disease over a period of time and hence not allowed to donate their organs . If by law we prohibit organ procurement for such individuals then where will these patients go ? They are then doomed to sure death .
However take another scenario , an ayurvedic doctor mastered the technique of transplantation and used this knowledge in removing kidneys from unsuspecting poor innocent people or by way of force or coercion and amassed a huge wealth . The kidneys went to financially sound , rich individuals and the poor people were doomed . The kidney donors were also not taken care of . This was clearly a case of criminal act .
The Human Organ Transplantation Act has solved many of these problems . Now an unrelated individual can also donate an organ out of love and affection but he has to prove that he is not selling the organ . An authorisation committee then interviews the donor and if the committee members are satisfied then the organ donation is permitted . However family members who are first degree relatives can donate organs without getting clearance from such a committee . This is an open secret that even among the family members , trade does take place , land or property is exchanged in lieu of an organ like kidney .
Man is an intelligent creature and most of this intelligence is tested when a person finds out a loop hole in the law . I have patients suffering from kidney failure who intentionally married the individuals who had matching blood group so that when time comes the spouse is asked to donate an organ .
All these situations are arising due to tremendous shortage of organs which can be solved to certain extent if people start donating the organs posthumously . A person can donate two kidneys , two eyes , one liver , two lungs , one heart, one pancreas , skin , bones, bone marrow , nerve cells and many other tissues after death . This is specially in situations like after meeting with an accident resulting in irreversible damage to the brain which ultimately cause death . The brain death is synonymous with death , though the heart might be beating with circulation intact and breathing being managed on ventilator .
After our death , the body is of no use , it is either buried or burnt , thus the organs are lost for ever . But by donating the organs we can help those unfortunate patients who are fighting for lives and thus help others to live.
This body is a beautiful gift of god and to sell the organs is immoral , it is a crime against the nature . So be an organ donor , donate the organs after death .
(Author Dr S.J.Acharya is an eminent nephrologist and kidney transplant physician , he is also founder secretary of Central India Kidney Foundation , can be contacted on e-mail - cikfoundation@yahoo.com )
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