Court allows woman to get kidney from relative

New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Tuesday allowed a 58-year-old woman, waiting for kidney transplant from June last year, to go ahead with the surgery with the organ donated by her niece.

Justice Vipin Sanghvi quashed the order of the Authorisation Committee for Human Organ Transplant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) and the appellate authority, the Director General of Health Services, which had rejected Parveen Begum's plea to get kidney from her niece Israt. They had contended that the organ donation could involve monetary favours as there is difference between the financial status of the two.

"The driving force behind the decision of petitioner No.2 (niece) to donate one of her kidneys to petitioner No.1 (Parveen Begum) clearly is her sense of love, affection, and gratitude for petitioner No.1, and is not commercial gain," the court held.

The court opined that mere existence of disparity in the income of the donor and the recipient by itself could not have been a reason to reject the plea.

Observing that Parveen Begum has been in need of kidney replacement from June 2011, and as the joint application seeking the Authorisation Committee's approval was submitted in August 2011, the court noted that over this period of time, Parveen Begum's condition has only deteriorated.

"Considering the urgency of the matter, I am inclined to require the Authorisation Committee to forthwith grant its approval to the petitioners for donation of one kidney by petitioner No.2 (niece) to petitioner No.1 in terms of their application. The formal approval should be granted within two days, failing which it shall be deemed that the said formal approval stands granted," the court ordered.

The petitioners had moved the court after the two committees rejected their plea for the organ transplant.