vasansi jirnani yatha vihaya navani grihnati naro ’parani tatha sharirani vihaya jirnanya
nyani sanyati navani dehi-Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2:22
For many organs, the donation is a legal concept where one can donate their organ to the other. Many times, organ donation can be done by a dead person and sometimes it can be done by an alive person too. In India, organ transplantation is regulated through the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) 1994. But due to the higher demand for organ donation and because of its lack of availability in the medical field many traffickers from all over the world traffic human beings only for the human organ so that they can sell it on the black market in high amounts. It is found that the organs are then sold for around US$15,000. It is found that only 10 percent of the global need is met for an ethical organ transplant. Thus, one can guess how much scarcity is there for organs in the medical field. Organ trafficking is one of the important concerns at the international level. According to Ambassador Silvio Gonzato, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union the issue of trafficking in human beings for organ removal is a grave concern to the European Union, as reflected in the European Union Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings (2021-2025). Though every country of the world is concerned about the need for human organs for transplant in medical cases as well as human trafficking issues too. Not all cases of human trafficking are for organ donation but yes many trafficking of human beings ended in organ transplants. Though we all are literate and somewhere we all are aware of the need for kidney and eye transplants. But what stops us from doing organ donation? For our family members, we are always ready to give our best what we can do for them. But when a transplant is required for a stranger, we are not bothered as they are not our family. For many, it might be against our religion to donate an organ after dead. But many of us may not be aware of the fact that it’s our Hinduism religion which teaches us about the importance of organ donation as our dharma. Kanappa a tribal hunter from mythology stories, was a great devotee of lord shiva. Once lord shiva took a test of him to check his devotion towards him, where he oozes out blood from one of his eyes from linga. Kanappa first try to treat the lingas eye with herbs but when he failed to treat it he simply gouged out his right eye and covered the bleeding wound with it. Then the left eye of the linga started to bleed. It was when he tried to gouge out his left eye, Lord shiva intervened and stopped him. This was a strong act of devotion and donation by Kanappa. Rishi Dadhichi sacrificed his life so that Indra, King of the Gods, may use his bones to create Varja, the thunderbolt weapon. The gods used the varja in their fight with the demons. According to The Manusmruti, “Of all the things that it is possible to donate, to donate your own body is infinitely more worthwhile.” Even according to Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2:22, “As a person discards the old worn-out clothes to put on new ones, the eternal soul discards the old body on death and takes re-birth into a new one.”
Even according to Charaka and Sushruta Samhita which is one of the ancient texts related to medicine also talked about organ transplantation and its importance. It’s wrong thinking of everyone that one should not donate an organ after death. For many, it’s important to destroy your body for getting a new body for rebirth. But that is not the truth. It’s the soul which takes rebirth not our body. Our bodies after dead become like our old torn clothes which we generally donate to needy people for their need. But why can’t we give our bodies to others for their use after our dead? Only one person gets to benefit from our single old clothes but from our body donation, one can save potentially 10 lives. More than 110,000 people are on the waiting list for an organ transplant in India and some of them are waiting for a lifesaving organ. This data can tell us about the importance and need for organ donation. For now, most organ donation comes from people who die from a severe brain injury, and who are on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. Very few people are there who donated their bodies even before their death for the good cause. It’s a feeling that one should have not by force but from their heart. When God has given us human birth to serve society, then that should be continued even after our dead. If we all understand the importance of organ donation then not only, we can save 10 lives from it but we can save many other persons from being trafficked for human organs which is also one of the important points for doing organ donation for saving someone’s life from being trafficked. The only thing is that we have to donate our organs to someone who needs it rather than wasting them. As per Hindu beliefs every action, we have done in our present birth may affect our future fate. So it’s better to do a good act even after our dead for our future fate. As per WHO from India, only 0.01% of people donate an organ after birth. That is very less in comparison to our population. How can we meet the demand for organs through this percentage of donation? Think about it and do something good for others even after our death.
Dr Pyali Chatterjee, HOD, Faculty of Law, ICFAI University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.