Bombay HC asks Maharashtra to frame guidelines for emergency organ donation

The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Maharashtra government to frame guidelines to deal with emergency situations related to organ donation and
retrieval. A bench of justices Naresh Patil and N W Sambre said the government should "frame guidelines and constitute a team of medical experts" to suggest ways during emergency situations.

The court's direction came on a petition filed before it by Swapnil Raut, who suffers from a kidney-related ailment. The plea focused on an incident at a Mumbai hospital, where another patient, who suffered from a similar issue as Raut, was awaiting kidney donation from a brain-dead patient. The patient lost out on receiving the organ since the potential donor died of a cardiac arrest, the plea said.

The hospital could not retrieve organs after the donor's death since the facility's licence for organ transplant had been suspended a few years ago, the plea said. "The procedure to retrieve organs was to be carried out, but the health department had barred the hospital. But this was an opportunity. If the patient's organs could be retrieved, the lives of several recipients including the said kidney patient could have been saved," the petition said.

The bench noted that this was a serious issue and the government should "frame guidelines, and constitute a team of medical experts who can intervene in such situations in the future."