Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Kidney transplant

The article by Dr. M.K. Mani (“Spare a thought for the donor,” April 15) is timely to bring out a healthy discussion on the problems of kidney patients.

Of course, the best solution for a medical problem is prevention. But we know practically it does not happen. So the country is going to be burdened with a very large number of patients with kidney failure due to the rising incidence of diabetes and blood pressure. The desperate need of the patient for a kidney and the poverty of the donor will make commercial transplantations continue. Such transplants will never end unless the clause of permitting unrelated kidney transplantation in the Human Organ Transplantation Act 1994 is removed. It should also be made mandatory for a donor to receive long-term health insurance.

Cadaver transplantations will be an answer if we are able to create an awareness in society whereby the relative of the brain dead victim spontaneously offers the various organs. This should be possible since, at least in the case of eye donations, almost a majority in society are keen about it. It is also essential to improve the quality and increase the availability of dialysis so that the unfortunate patients do not think that renal transplantation is the only remedy for them.

Dr. Rajan Ravichandran,

Director, Madras Institute of Nephrology, Vijaya Health Centre, Chennai

Dr. Mani’s suggestions should be taken forward on a priority basis. It is distressing to note that even after 60 years of independence, we have such abject poverty that the poor feel compelled to sell their organs for a pittance. It is an irony that we have plans for creating the world’s most opulent airports and railway stations to go with almost the world’s worst levels of poverty.

M.H. Rao,

Hyderabad

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