On December 10, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj underwent a kidney transplant surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or AIIMS in Delhi with the kidney from an unrelated donor.

Officials at the hospital told Scroll.in that there were no suitable donors among Swaraj’s near relatives, which according to the Transplant of Human Organs Act, could be a spouse, mother, father, daughter, son, grandmother or grandfather of the recipient. However, a distant relative, legally classified as an unrelated donor, whose blood work matched Swaraj’s agreed to donate the organ.Doctors who work with patients suffering from kidney failure discussing Swaraj’s surgery noted that the minister got clearance for her surgery “in a matter of days”, emphasising that it would take a “common man” weeks and months of legal clearances…..Readmore