Make Kidney Transplant - Transparent

In the last week of January 2008, all the news papers and news channels were full of Kidney Transplant Racket. Some doctors were accused of taking out the kidneys of poor people with out their knowledge and transplanting them in the bodies of needy persons of many nationalities, religion and faiths.

There are number of people under going renal dialysis, many amongst them are in need of Kidney Transplant. There are willing and unwilling donors and sellers also. The people under going renal dialysis need Kidney Transplant. In India, legally only blood relatives can ‘donate’ their kidney to their relatives for Kidney Transplant. Many a times desired parameters of donors and recipients do not match for transplant and then people resort to illegal options.

The need of the hour is to make easier laws for this transplant. One step in this direction would be to legalise the swap i.e. any two donors can swap their kidneys for their blood relatives. This will to an extent would control a large chunk of illegal activity.

Globally, the numbers of kidney patients are growing every year and more and more people want their kidneys to be transplanted. These numbers can be worked out by collecting data from Renal Dialysis Centers.

It is possible to centralize details of all donors and recipients willing and awaiting for a kidney transplant. The registrations can be stored in a single national/ international server. Similarly, we can have registrations of blood relatives. If these people are willing they can swap the kidneys for transplant for their relatives.

An organisation similar to The National Securities Depository Ltd; can handle all data, transactions and a central server can handle all registrations. There would not be more than 100,000 entries per year. The hospitals, consultants and doctors can be linked to the server. There can also be licensed agents with access to the server. This will:

• Ensure that all registrations, relationship, etc., are transparent and verifiable
• Help donors and recipients track people willing to swap
• Help in tracking transplant activities
• Help in locating doctors, hospitals, their charges and their track record
• Assist officials in tracing the data which may be helpful in research and policy formulation.

There is need to amend the relevant laws and rules for the benefit of humanity.