Dr. Sumanth Raman and Dr. George Paul’s articles (Open Page, June 17) merit a response to set the record straight. To pay or not to pay is the fundamental question in this whole debate on organ donation. The answer lies very simply in the fulfilment of the four basic principles of medical ethics: Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-malfeasance and Justice. Does the deceased organ donation programme fulfil these criteria?
For Jalandhar-based Varinder Kumar, 59, a recipient of a liver transplant, Pakistan will always be remembered with a moist eye and a warm heart. After all, he owes his life to a woman there.
In their article, (Open Page, June 10, 2012), Dr. Shroff and Dr. Navin have argued that cadaver transplant is the only answer to the demand for organs. I agree that cadaver transplants and the role played by MOHAN in recruiting potential organ donors in the event of their death are a meaningful exercise.
This is in response to the article ‘Organ donation-looking beyond tokenism' written by Dr. Sunil Shroff and Dr. Sumana Navin (Open Page, June 10), in response to my earlier article, ‘Organ donation: is tokenism costing lives?' (Open Page, May 27, 2012).
In February 2012, a group of corporate, government and non-governmental organisations came together to sensitise their employees and members to organ donation. Many people pledged to donate their organs after death and undertook to carry a donor card.
A few weeks ago, an article in the papers spoke of a State where some organisations had created a database of those willing to donate organs and had enrolled 13,000 people within a month of their commencing the initiative. With the country facing an acute scarcity of organs for transplant, this must surely have been welcome news.
He met with an accident on his way to a funeral last week; had begun moving into his new house just a day earlier.
Shah-e-Tara Jasrotia, 64, flaunts a few words in faded green across her arm. “It is a tattoo,” she says, “I got it years ago.” Squint a little, go closer, and the text in Devnagri script on her shrivelled skin begins to gain legibility.
This June, G. Naveen Kumar would have joined a well-known private company as a trainee after being selected recently through a placement programme at his college – PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore. Naveen's Facebook profile photo has the logo of the company he was to join and this speaks of the expectation this 22-year-old had of a career.
At least one-fourth of more than 19,000 police officers in the city, including commissioner J K Tripathy, have pledged their organs for donation.
