Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court passed a historic verdict on Wednesday while hearing a petition on Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research refusal to perform a kidney transplant on a patient on the ground that the donor was not a blood relation of the patient. The High Court said anyone could donate a kidney and it is not necessary for the recipient to be his blood relation.
For a kidney transplant, it is mandatory for the donor to have a blood relation with the patient under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. But the Punjab and Haryana High Court said, "If a person's life is being saved and there is no transaction between the organ donor and the recipient, then another person can also donate a kidney."
"Although the law is very strict in this matter, it cannot be above humanity," the HC said. The petition was filed in the High Court on behalf of two patients and two donors undergoing treatment at PGI. The kidneys of both patients have failed and the PGI asked them for a kidney transplant.
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A patient's wife wanted to donate a kidney to another patient and her mother-in-law also wanted to donate a kidney to another patient, but the blood group of both did not match with the blood group of the patients. While the blood group of the first patient matched with the donor of the second patient and that of the second patient with the donor of the first patient.
The PGI has refused to transplant a kidney from a donor outside the blood relation, citing the Organ Transplant Act. After PGI's refusal, the patients and the donors went to the High Court. Under Article 21 of the Constitution, any citizen has the right to donate an organ for transplant, provided it is not outside the ambit of the law.
Under Section 9 (3) of the Transplant Act, in emergency situations, the organs of a non-blood relation can also be transplanted with the permission of the concerned committee. Justice Vinod K Bharadwaj said, "The Organ and Tissue Transplant Act is designed to regulate so that it does not take commercial form but also changes the attitude of the authorized committee by putting human life first."
