Lok Sabha Parliamentary Q & A on Organ Donation & Transplantation

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 3725

ANSWERED ON 27.04.2012

LIVER AND KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATIONS

3725. Shri HARI MANJHI

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:-

(a) whether thousands of people illegally undergo liver and kidney transplantations each year in the country;

(b) if so, the steps taken by the Government to check it;

(c) the number of patients waiting for liver, kidney and heart transplantations along with the number of patients out of these undergoing such transplantations each year in the country; and

(d) the steps being taken to augment necessary medical facilities for transplantation of body organs in the country?

ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI GHULAM NABI AZAD)

(a) & (b): Some alleged illegal transplants of kidneys have come to the notice of Government of India. The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 itself contains stringent provisions for punishment for removal and illegal trafficking of human organs. Moreover, penal provisions and prohibitive punishments have been made more stringent in the Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act, 2011.

(c): Health is a State subject. The data is not maintained centrally. However, the estimates based on published studies indicate that there is a wide gap between the demand and the availability of organs such as kidney, liver & heart, etc. There is an estimated requirement of more than one lakh kidneys, fifty thousand livers and fifty thousand hearts etc, while only about five thousand kidneys and three hundred livers are reportedly transplanted every year.

(d): Health being a State subject, it is for the State Governments to provide health care services.