A mother’s celebration of the wellness of her child with whom she traveled across countries to get a liver transplant (and who has apparently broken an arm playing football 4 years down the line)
Solid organ transplantation – liver, kidney, heart, lungs- has given a new lease of life to countless millions and their near and dear ones.
The same surgery has generated new age moral and ethical questions, questions hitherto unthinkable in human society.
The questions are easy and the answers known!
Who needs an organ?
How does one get a solid organ or a part of it from another human being?
Who donates?
Who decides allocation – who gets the organ – a sicker patient or a less sick person?
What is the price?
Who pays- there are no free lunches!
Should a human being undergo surgery to donate a part of his liver or one of his kidneys to another ?
What motivates a person to donate?
Is it money or love?
Are human beings capable of infinite altruism – to give without expectation of return?
Should monetary deal be a part of organ donation?
Where does a sick person in desperate need of a heart or a liver draw a line?
All such issues were discussed threadbare by a group of concerned world citizens in the DICG- NATCO roundtable.
The interaction brought to fore the common man’s concern-
Who is responsible for health?
Who is accountable?
Is it the state or the individual that is responsible?
The moral dichotomy of the word – ‘private healthcare’
A father made an actionable and most poignant suggestion. He had donated his brain dead son’s organs to other needy individuals. It was an act of love. He probably hoped that his son would live in the body of another person. He suggested planting trees in the name of the organ donors.
Dhvani Mehta raised the topic of justice in transplantation.
Dr Mala Ramanathan elaborated on public health perspective of transplantation.
Architects of transplantation act in attendance
Yashobhoomi Convention Center provided a spectacular venue for the program. The scale of the convention center is mind blowing. It is in tune with the demands of modern India.
The event raises questions about healthcare access. Questions which we conveniently brush under the carpet while attending swanky private hospitals. All the while hypocritically lamenting the absence of government-provided health care.
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