Abstract

Organ Transplantation is one of our greatest scientific achievements, a miracle we have come to take for granted due to tremendous advances in medicine. However, the act of harvesting the organs of a deceased individual, though scientifically established, also involves a race against time to prevent ischemia and the ever present possibility of malpractice. Thus the social and legal aspects of organ donation seem to be as, if not more, complicated than the surgical and immunological aspects of transplantation itself. Indian law has various provisions to facilitate organ transplantation; however, rate of deceased donor organ transplantation is just 0.5 per million populations (PMP). In contrast, Spain is a leader in Organ Donation, with rate of 34.4 deceased donations PMP. In this article we aim to study the laws in both countries, and the possibility of adopting some of the policies implemented by Spain, so as to increase the number of donations in India.

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