High Court says NO to donor state NOC

Living donor liver transplant is the only way currently to expand the available donor pool and bridge the ever-expanding gap between need of transplantable organs and availability of organs from deceased donors. The Human organ transplant act of 1994 allows ‘near relatives’ or those who are emotionally related to the recipient to donate their organs out of love and affection. If the donor and the recipient are domiciled in different states, the donor is required to produce a no objection certificate (NOC) from his/her state of domicile that needs to be submitted to the authorization committee of the competent authority under that transplant act in the state where the transplant will be performed.

This certificate does no more than verifies the credentials and particulars of the donor such as donor’s name and address. It does not in anyway confirm or help establish that the donation is out of love and affection and not out of coercion or financial considerations. That is the statutory duty of the authorization committee of the state where the transplant is being performed.

Procurement of this NOC can be an extremely tedious and laborious process requiring multiple trips to the health department officials and district administration. All this imposes a significant cost and is a significantly demotivating factor. Not only that, the time taken can needlessly delay a life saving transplant.

One hopes that this decision by the Bombay High Court (Times of India March 6, 2013) will help clear the decks and avoid this unnecessary hassle that patients and their families are subjected to during their already stressful period.