A life-saving call

THE Centre’s directive asking all hospitals to set up organ and tissue donation teams in their ICUs is both timely and overdue. Despite decades of advocacy, organ donation in India remains distressingly low — around 0.9 donors per million population, compared to over 30 in countries like Spain. As a result, lakhs of patients die each year waiting for transplants that never come even as many viable organs go unutilised. The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) has now urged every hospital to create a dedicated team comprising brain-stem death committee members and counsellors to guide families through the process. It is a necessary move because many potential donations are lost for want of timely counselling, awareness and coordination. Often, by the time grief-stricken families are approached, the window for organ or tissue retrieval has closed irreversibly.

Yet directives alone will not suffice. Many hospitals, especially in smaller towns, lack transplant coordinators, trained ICU staff and even the basic infrastructure to preserve and transport organs. The private sector continues to dominate transplants, while government hospitals lag far behind. Without substantial investment in training, logistics and incentives, the “all hospitals” mandate may remain a noble aspiration.

Equally important is public trust. Myths, fear and misinformation still surround the idea of organ donation. Awareness campaigns must shift from token observances to sustained, empathetic outreach that normalises donation as an act of compassion, not sacrifice. Public education and transparent systems can bridge this trust deficit. The new directive is a good beginning, but it must evolve into a coordinated national effort — one that joins policy with empathy, logistics with humanity. Only then will India’s promise of giving life beyond death become a reality rather than a policy note gathering dust.

Editorials