PROPER regulation of organ transplantation and restriction on illegal organ trade are not yet confirmed due to reluctance mood of the government. Bangladesh has a population of around 1.6 million. Of them about 20 million are suffering from kidney diseases and another half a million are suffering from other corneal diseases. Although the need for organ transplantation to cure many is growing with time, the culture of organ donation is not well established in the country. The existing provisions stipulating donors to be relatives of the recipients should be relaxed and anyone should have the scope to donate organs providing that donors and recipients were not known to each other.
According to the “Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Bill, 2018”, if a patient dies in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the ‘Brain Death Committee’ will declare the death of the patient officially. After the declaration of death, with the permission of the patient’s family, the organs of the deceased could be extracted in order to transplant them to another patient in need. As per the law, organ removal for transplant cannot be done without the government’s consent in any hospital. However, public hospitals with specialized units could transplant without government approval.
In the country 30,000 of kidney patients out of 20 million die every year. The annual demand for a kidney transplant is estimated to be 5000. However, on an average only around 100 people can manage kidneys from their relatives to undergo transplantation. Middle Eastern countries have accepted the organ transplantation programmes with an open heart and thousands of people are getting benefit from it every year.
So, combined efforts are needed to save the people’s lives by transplanting organs are imperative. But the government must stop the illegal organ trade first.
