The Delhi High Court recently asked the Centre to frame guidelines for reference of the appropriate authority and the state governments. The court was considering an application for living organ or tissue donations by minors.
Justice Subramonium Prasad directed that the guidelines under Rule 5(3)(g) of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissue Rules, 2014, be framed within two months. The Rule 5(3)(g) states that living organ or tissue donation by minors shall not be allowed except on exceptional medical grounds to be recorded in detail with full justification and with prior approval of the Appropriate Authority and the State Government concerned.
The Delhi High Court further observed that in exceptional medical grounds, a minor can be permitted to donate live tissues and organs but such exceptional medical grounds have not been laid down which can lead to arbitrariness in the grant of permission for such donations.
The court said that guidelines have to be laid down underlining the nature of exceptional medical grounds which can be adopted throughout the country by the appropriate authority and the state governments.
The court made the aforesaid direction while dealing with a plea moved by a 17-year-old girl for direction to the Central Government to grant necessary permission to donate a part of her liver to her ailing father. Reportedly, the medical report of AIIMS stated that the girl was healthy and could donate a part of her liver to her father within the criteria prescribed. The report stated that a person of her age undergoes partial hepatic resection similar to a donation procedure with acceptable risk.
Taking into consideration, the aforesaid report, the court said that it is inclined to allow the petitioner to donate a part of her liver to her father. It added that the girl can undergo the procedure in a specialized center like AIIMS where all her detailed workup will be done keeping in view of her safety.