Context

The Union Health Ministry has done away with the age cap of 65 years for receiving an organ from a dead donor, and guidelines are being revised to allow the elderly to register on waiting lists.

About

The numbers (Government data):

• Organs from deceased donors accounted for nearly 8% of all transplants in 2022 in the country.
• The number of transplants has increased over the years.
• The total number of deceased organ transplants climbed from 837 in 2013 to 2,765 in 2022.
• The total number of organ transplants – with organs from both deceased and living donors – increased from 4,990 in 2013 to 15,561 in 2022.
• India conducts the third highest number of transplants in the world.
  • Every year, an estimated 1.5-2 lakh people need a kidney transplant. Only around 10,000 got one in 2022. Of the 80,000 people who required a liver transplant, less than 3,000 got one in 2022. And, of the 10,000 who needed a heart transplant.

Regulations pertaining to Organ donation:

• Organ donation in India is regulated by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA), 1994, which was amended in 2011. 
• The Act made commercialisation of organs a punishable offence and also brought in the concept of brain death in India. 
• The latter paved the way for deceased organ donation (retrieving organs from brain stem dead persons). 
• Under the Act, the government has set up the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) as an apex centre for procurement and distribution of organs.
  • In addition, there are regional (ROTTO) and state transplant organisations (SOTTO).
• The latter lists recipients and allocates organs in each state using an organ-sharing network.