CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the authorisation committee (transplantation) to entertain a representation to grant a Non-Objection Certificate (NOC) to a doctor with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to receive a kidney from non-relative donor.
A doctor, who may have helped save many lives, now finds himself in a state of helplessness to save his own life, observed Justice N Seshasayee while pronouncing orders.
The hospitals in Tamil Nadu appear to have pinned themselves to their committed reluctance to entertain a non-relative as an organ donor, when the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, does not insist that a donor should be a relative, this attitude is worrisome, wrote the judge.
The court also directed the committee to pass orders within four weeks.
The judge observed that if the authorisation committee refuses to grant approval under Section 9 (6) of the Act, it is left open to the petitioner to avail the remedy of an appeal under Section 17 of the Act and dispose of the petition.
The petitioner J Kaja Moinudeen, a doctor, moved the HC seeking to direct the committee to issue NOC granting approval for transplantation.
A hospital in Kerala had requested a NOC from the authorisation committee in Chennai to process the procedure. Since he was not given the NOC, the petitioner moved the High Court.