Punjab and Haryana High Court has sought a reply from the Central government on framing of a policy for human organ transplantation as the issue of thousands of deaths due to lack of transplantation facilities in Indian hospitals was raised in a Public Interest litigation.
Taking up a petition, filed by advocate Ranjan lakhanpal, the High Court has issued notices to the Union of India besides Punjab and Haryana for November 17. In his petition, the petitioner advocate, who himself has got a kidney transplanted, has contended that most of the people needing transplant of organs die, waiting for organ donations or the timely availability of the required organs.
Seeking setting up of more hospitals with facilities for conducting organ transplantations, the petitioner has said that the demand for the organ transplantation is rising day by day. The wide spread use of pesticide and insecticide in food has increased the incidents of kidney failure, liver failure, pancreas disease, diabetes, heart ailments etc., resulting in requirement of organ transplants.
The petitioner asserted that in Punjab and Haryana, the facility for organ transplantation was available in very few government hospitals and the procedure was highly technical and cumbersome. He said that most private hospitals did not have enough instrument/machineries to deal with such operation.
The petitioner asserted that the waiting lists for organ transplant in Indian hospitals range between 5 to 10 years and only the fortunate one’s survive to undergo the transplants.