The court was hearing a public interest litigation that said an estimated 80,000 people with severe renal failure in the country are awaiting donors and resorting to illegal means to procure kidneys as existing laws deter donors because of cumbersome and time-consuming provisions.

"Thousands of people are dying because of the stringent nature of the law," said Rakesh Prabhakar, who filed the petition along with activist Rahul Verma. He said that the recently busted illegal kidney racket in Gurgaon could have been prevented had the Health Ministry acted on the recommendations of the High Court-appointed Transplant of Human Organs Act Review Committee.

The petition sought the amendment of existing organ transplant laws to liberalise the provisions relating to organ donors. But a bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur refused to admit the petition saying the court has already dealt with the matter.

"There is a limit to which we can interfere," said Justice Thakur. "We cannot direct the government to review any law. Even the Government cannot. It is up to the parliament. You have the option of filing a contempt of court petition against the government for not considering the recommendations."

WHAT WAS RECOMMENDED

1.  Promote cadaver donations. 

2. Give incentives to families of cadaver and live donors. 

3.Hospital must maintain records of all brain-dead patients and approach their relatives for organ donation. 

4. Report all brain-dead patients as potential donors to a central agency like the Organ Retrieval and Banking Organisation. 

5. Ambit of such an organisation be enlarged with regional centres to cover the northern, southern, eastern, western and central regions of the country. 

6. All those desirous of availing cadaver organs through such an organisation must register.

URL: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=13_03_2008_002_005&typ=1&pub=264