COMMENT ON PAKISTANI ORGAN DONATION LAW
Amalorpavanathan Joseph
It seems that the Pakistani law is largely based on the Indian Model. The fear is that the infirmities of the Indian model may get reflected in the Pakistan Act too.
Some of the basic flaws of the Indian Act are:
1. Wife is made as a Near Relative which means she can donate her kidney to her husband. Except in rare instances wife is not a biological relative of the husband. This clause led to what is called Kidney Marriages: a rich kidney failure patient would marry a poor girl and then she would be coerced to donate her kidney. [Now some states have put a rule saying marriages should be at least 2 years old.] In Pakistani situation where multiples wives are legally permissible, it would be disastrous for women.
2. “Emotionally Related Donation” was allowed by the Indian law. Which means a poor laborer from an urban slum can become “emotionally related” to a rich person and if he decides to ‘donate’ his kidney, it became legal. This sub-clause became the standard loophole for thousands and thousands of unrelated transplants -trade in human organs-that took place in India since 1994. [What the Act sought to ban by its main text was in fact encouraged by this sub-clause.]
I do not know if these are also copied in the Pakistan model. I do not know the exact meaning and legal implication of “wet mother.” Perhaps it is Pakistani way of allowing commercial transplants by a sub-clause.
I believe it is not just enough to ban the kidney trade without allowing the victims another legitimate way of getting kidneys. The Indian Act does that by legalizing “Brain Death” in the same Act which ultimately resulted in Cadaver Transplantation. I do not know if the Pakistan Act does that. [I hope it does]
In my experience Cadaver Transplant may not end organ trade all together but will definitely reduce its magnitude. We are seeing this trend in Tamil Nadu. But for that to happen, the state must come out with clear set of rules. That is what Tamil Nadu did and that is the reason for the success. Other states have not done that and hence they lag behind.
[amaldr@hotmail.com]