Organ transplant committee seeks inclusion of Mumbai police to curb trafficking

To curb organ trafficking and bring more clarity to transplant procedures, Mumbai's Human Organ Authority Committee has asked for support from the police department. It has also written to the Azad Maidan police station in this regard.

Senior health officials said they will be holding meetings with police authorities to have discussions on joining the committee and how to take this forward.

Taking note of the Pune kidney racket, in which one of the donors apparently gave fake identity proof, the Maharashtra Government formed three regional authority panels so that such instances aren't repeated.

The Cama & Albless Hospital was selected as the panel for Mumbai city. The seven-member committee was headed by Cama Hospital Superintendent Dr Tushar Palve.

As per the procedure, the donor and recipient have to go through the committee which will scrutinise all the documents and make sure that everything is going according to law.

Dr Palve said there have been many instances when it became difficult to verify and cross-check the relationship between donors and recipients. Hence, it was thought that inclusion of police officials in the committee will ease the verification process, while bringing transparency.

“I have written to the Azad Maidan police station asking them to be a part of our human organ authorisation committee.

“We will be holding meetings with the police officials in the coming days and further steps will be taken accordingly,” Dr Palve said. The police could play a crucial role in verifying the relationships between donor and recipient, getting the documents certified and also checking on organ trafficking, he added.

So far, the committee has handled 40 cases, which include 14 liver and 26 kidney donation cases.