Health ministry eyes presumed consent to tackle cornea shortage

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If you haven't specifically declared that you don't want to donate your eyes after you pass away, the government wants to presume that you have consented to your corneas being harvested. A growing shortage of corneas and an ever-expanding waiting list of patients have prompted the health ministry to explore presumed consent for cornea donation.

Under the proposed policy, hospitals would be allowed to retrieve corneas from deceased patients unless they had formally opted out during their lifetime. Implementing this change will require amending the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA), 1994, to incorporate the provision. The proposal was discussed and agreed upon at a recent meeting of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), according to minutes issued by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), dated 15 October.

Mint has reviewed a copy of the minutes. Read this | Organ donations may not remain just a family affair for much longer “One of the points which was deliberated in work is bringing a new policy, i.e., presumed consent for retrieval of cornea in all cases of hospital deaths of Indian citizens unless the person had opted out during his lifetime, should be implemented," said Dr Anil Kumar, director, NOTTO, who was present at the DGHS meeting. Corneal conditions remain the leading cause of blindness among Indians under 49, accounting for 37.5% of cases, according to a survey conducted by AIIMS’s Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences and the health ministry.