Plea in SC Alleges Malpractice in Certifying Patients as Brain Dead

NEW DELHI:
A medical practitioner from Kerala approached the Supreme Court with a plea alleging malpractice by hospitals in declaring patients brain dead.
The petitioner claimed that this was being done indiscriminately with the ulterior motive of harvesting organs of the “brain dead” persons. When the matter came up before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha said there were already statutory provisions existing which lay down the procedure for certification. He, however, said he would discuss it with the Ministry of Health and get back to the court.
S Ganapathy had filed the writ petition initially before the state High Court, which disposed of it saying it was “satisfied that steps taken by the Central and State Governments are sufficient for the time being”. The petition before the apex court challenged this HC order and sought leave to appeal against it.
The petitioner said the transplant of human organs is regulated by the Transplant of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994. “Sub-section 3(6) of the Act prescribes the authority by which a person can be certified as brain-dead, requiring a Board of 4 medical experts that meet certain criteria, conducting two tests, six hours apart to certify a person as ‘brain-dead’,” he pointed out. He, however, suspected that in most cases, the patient is certified as brain dead by a committee of three doctors from the same hospital and one doctor from another private hospital, without performing the required tests.
The government, he pointed out, had given the hospital that certifies a patient as brain dead a first right to three organs of the patient — the liver, heart and one kidney. “A certification of a person as ‘brain-dead’ would, with the permission of the person’s relatives, yield several organs of the person’s body – heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, intestine, corneas — for transplant. While the organs are not commercially bought or sold, the cost of conducting the transplant itself yields between Rs 1.5 crore and 2 crore to a hospital,” the petition said.