Niti Aayog working towards making India more organ donation-friendly; Rules may be eased

The Niti Aayog is working towards easing the process of organ donation and transplantation in India by simplifying regulations, removing legal hurdles, improving infrastructure and strengthening the database on organ availability to make the country more organ donation friendly.

The options being considered include moving from opt-in model to opt-out model for organ donation for deceased to address the huge demand-supply gap in the country and streamlining definitions across related legislations to remove legal hurdles while putting in place stringent checks and balances to prevent organ trafficking, a senior government official told ET.

The Aayog has kick-started discussions with the health and family welfare ministry to identify challenges impacting organ donations and will soon come up with a roadmap to address implementation issues.

Organ donation and transplantation is governed by Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 (amended in 2014) under National Organ Transplant Programme.

Under the existing legislation, the organs of deceased donors can be used for transplant only if the persons, during their lifetime, have given consent or opted-in for organ donation after death. The opt-out system, on the contrary, means the deceased patient is presumed to have consented to organ donation unless proved otherwise.