The Health Minister of India, Anbumani Ramadoss, has proposed amendments to Indian law that would provide for a formal model for organ donation and transplantation in India that is based upon Western transplant models.

The proposed system includes a `presumed consent’ law, similar to that which is in place in Spain and yielding very positive results.

Aimed to address the severe shortage of organs for transplant in India, the law will enable the government to recover the organs of all brain dead people in government hospitals; that too without first having to obtain the formal consent of family relatives.  Relatives of a potential donor can raise an objection. But only if the brain dead person has specifically stated that he or she is against organ transplant.

One of the amendments proposed in the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, the legal recovery process is supposed to begin with cornea. Other organs will be recovered only at a later stage as the Ministry wants people to learn about presumed consent first.

The amendment was initiated after the police unearthed a multi-billion dollar kidney transplant racket in Gurgaon, on the outskirt of Delhi in January.  It is expected that the `presumed consent’ will help protect against the illegal organ trade and help scores of visually impaired.

Some have voiced concerns that presumed consent will have challenges in the religiously and culturally sensitive country of India. Though eye donation is an accepted practice in India, removal of other vital organs from the cadavers or brain dead patients may encounter some objection by relatives.  Some also note that, even in the United States, it is mandatory for the hospitals to get the consent of the immediate kin for organ donation.

India's move to modernize its organ and tissue transplant system continues to gain momentum, and these proposed amendments demonstrate the country's committment to addressing its organ shortage.