NOTTO Mulls Making Posthumous 'Presumed Consent' Mandatory

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): To combat cornea blindness in country, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) is working on a suggestion of putting a legal system in place wherein cornea of a patient dying in hospital would be donated on presumed consent. “We received this suggestion during a ‘chintanshivir’ in New Delhi,” said NOTTO Director Dr Anil Kumar.

The suggestion also stipulated that corneas would not be donated in case the patient had declined donation in writing. Talking to reporters, on the sidelines of Transplant Coordinators Training Session at Super Speciality Hospital, on Thursday, he said that the Human Organ and Tissue Transplantation Act would have to be amended to implement the suggestion.

Currently, family’s consent was mandatory for donation of different organs or tissues like cornea after a patient was declared brain dead, he said and added that blindness caused by corneal disease was a major problem in the country. According to an estimate, at least one lakh corneas were required annually for transplantation, he said. “We want all eye banks and corneal transplant centres of the country to join the registry of NOTTO and register information about patients in it.

We have also written to all state governments,” Kumar said. He said that about 650 organ transplant centres were associated with NOTTO.

Only 15% of them were in government sector. “We want to promote organ donation and transplantation in government hospitals but lack of trained workforce is a major problem,” he said adding “NOTTO is trying to start a centre for transplantation of different organs in at least one government hospital in every state.”

Leaders in Hand Transplants

Dr Kumar emphasized India’s global leadership in hand transplantation, with 37 hand transplants across nine centres, including one in Indore, in the country. Stressing on the importance of promoting organ donation, he said that a single deceased donor could save eight or nine lives.

2L new kidney patients annually

Highlighting rising need for kidney transplants, he said two lakh new patients were added to waiting list every year. In 2023, 18,378 transplants were performed across India, including 2,935 cadaver. Only eight donors were from Madhya Pradesh, highlighting the need of greater awareness and participation.