Shot in the arm for medical tourism as THOTA gets adopted

Hyderabad : The Assembly on Monday adopted the resolution on Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act-1994 (THOTA). With this, the government aims to strengthen medical tourism, apart from bringing in transparency and curtailing illegal organ trafficking.

Health Minister Damodara Rajanarsimha who moved the resolution in the Assembly informed that the THOTA Act allows for the transplantation of tissues, in addition to organ transplantation. The Central Government issued the regulations related to the THOTA Act in 2014. This is in force in 24 states of the country and now Telangana will become the 25th State to adopt this.

The Minister further informed that the benefits of adopting the THOTA Act are, in addition to organs like heart, kidney, and liver, skin, bone marrow, blood vessels, and heart valves also come under the purview of the law. These can be collected from brain death donors and transplanted to those who are in need.

The law allows grandparents to donate organs to their grandchildren. Due to certain genetic disorders, children may need to undergo liver transplantation. For such children, their grandparents will have the opportunity to donate their liver. This will be useful in saving the lives of the children. Similarly, grandchildren can also donate organs to their grandparents.

According to the Minister, the new rules that will come into force will severely punish anyone involved in illegal organ trafficking and transplantation. Previously, organ transplantation in violation of the law was punishable by a fine of Rs 5,000 and up to 3 years in jail. According to the new rules, a fine of up to Rs 1 crore and up to 10 years in jail can be imposed.

Earlier, only neurosurgeons and neurophysicians had the authority to declare brain death, but new rules give eligibility to physician, surgeon, intensivist, anaesthetist to declare brain death. This will help to save the lives of the patients who need it, without wasting organs in brain death cases. “An advisory committee will be formed at the government level to monitor organ donation and transplantation. There will be an opportunity to transplant organs collected from brain death donors in other states to patients in our state,” he explained.

As part of special measures for transparency, transplant coordinators will be appointed in every hospital to monitor the processes of brain death declaration, organ donation, organ procurement and transplantation, he added.