CHENNAI: Nearly a decade after Tamil Nadu launched the cadaver organ programme and became a role model in the country, senior transplant surgeons and activists are pushing for an overhaul of the rules. The demand is to establish a common wait list for each of the organs and allotment solely on the basis of medical emergency or seniority on the list.Although the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation — the apex body — networks among states for organ sharing, the rules for allotment in most of the state organisations are not uniform.

The TN State Transplant Authority (Transtan) convenor Dr P Balaji says, the liver, heart or lung in the state is first offered to a patient listed as ‘super-urgent’. “Next it is offered to a recipient at the donor’s hospital. If there is no in-house recipient, the organ is offered to recognised centers on a rotation basis.”A similar process is followed in Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala, priority is given to a centre within the zone where the organ is harvested. “In all these states, the liver is allotted to centres and not to a patient. In Mumbai, however, allocation is to a patient. We need uniform rules and stringent monitoring,” says Dr Sunil Shroff of MOHAN Foundation, an NGO campaigning for cadaver organ donation…..Readmore