Health Ministry urges people to adopt organ donation as a way of life

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) The Union Health Ministry on Friday urged people to adopt organ donation as a way of life, to help provide a new lease of life to hundreds of people with organ failure.

One person donating organs after death can give a new lease of life to up to eight patients suffering from various organ failures.

India faces the lowest organ donation rate worldwide, with a mere 0.1 per cent of the population donating their organs after death. On the contrary, Western countries have 70-80 per cent deceased organ donation.

To make more organs available for transplantation among people suffering from the last stage of organ failure, the government has been implementing the National Organ Transplant Programme -- aimed to promote organ donation from deceased persons.

“Organ donation needs to become a way of life for us so that we can give a new lease of life to those suffering from organ failure,” said L. S. Changsan, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

She was speaking at the inauguration of the Chintan-Shivir on reforms required for the augmentation of organ and tissue donation and transplantation in the national capital.

Changsan stressed the need to promote organ donation from deceased persons to meet the huge need for organs in the country.

She also informed the government’s plan to launch a "One Nation, One Policy" for organ donation and transplantation.

The government is currently in the “consultation process with the States on this”.

“Our focus is to improve the availability of infrastructure and trained manpower for organ transplantation, especially in government institutions,” she said, adding that the government has already initiated an organ donation public awareness campaign -- Angdaan Jan Jagrukta Abhiyaan -- which is actively underway in various states and institutions.

Meanwhile, Dr. Atul Goel, Director General Health Services (DGHS) called for the need to encourage deceased donations as much as possible both in government and private hospitals.

The two-day Chintan Shivir will cover important themes like plugging legal loopholes, affordability, accessibility, and equality, concerning organ donation and transplantation.