Mukherjee rues poor rate of organ donation in India

Kolkata: Observing that the number of people offering to make posthumous donations of organs in India was much less than that in other countries, President Pranab Mukherjee today stressed on the need to encourage such donations and dispel myths and superstitions from the minds of the people. Noting that India was lagging behind many countries in terms of the number of people coming forward to donate organs, Mukherjee said that the country resultantly suffers from organ shortages of gigantic proportions.[caption id=“attachment_1334157” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  President Pranab Mukherjee. PTI[/caption] Spain, with 35 organ donors for every million citizens, has the highest donation rate in the world. The US, at 26 donors per million, and the UK, with 13 donors per million, also have high organ donation rates. India, in comparison, has a rate of less than 0.2 donors per one million population. An estimated two lakh people in our country are diagnosed with organ failure every year and need transplantation to survive, the president said. He said that there are 34 organs and tissues which can be collected from a brain-dead donor. The number of brain-dead donors in India, at 196 in 2012—the highest for a year so far—was woefully short, he said. There is a need to encourage pledges for donation of bodies, organs and tissues among the people by increasing awareness and dispelling myths about the unique deed. There is also a need to sensitise the public, particularly those desirous of donating organs posthumously and those seeking transplantation, about following the due procedure for the same under the law, the president said. The president was speaking at an event at Raj Bhawan in Kolkata to launch a campaign for posthumous donation of bodies, organs and tissues. The campaign, which marks the 178th anniversary of the first dissection of a human cadaver in Asia at the Medical College of Calcutta by Madhusudan Gupta, is being organised by Ganadarpan, an NGO engaged in the promotion of rational and scientific temper among the people. PTI