Draft guidelines submitted in Delhi HC over donor`s body

New Delhi: The city government on Wednesday submitted draft guidelines in the Delhi High Court on donation of bodies in hospitals for medical research purposes stating the procedure to be followed for donation.

Taking into note the draft guidelines submitted by the Delhi government's health and family welfare department, a division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw posted the matter for Nov 5.

The draft guidelines came on a plea of a man who had moved the court saying the last wish of his sister to donate her body for research could not be realised because of the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities.

Delhi government's standing counsel Zubeda Begum told the court that for whole body donation, a person can register himself during his lifetime, and after death to the head of the anatomy department of any government medical teaching institute.

Application to the anatomy head can be made by near relatives of the person, the guidelines said.

The head of the department has to maintain a register and all relevant information shall be provided by the applicant.

The draft guidelines submitted by special secretary health, S.B. Shashank said these shall not apply to an unclaimed body.

The draft guidelines shall apply to all medical institutions in Delhi.

The court had May 30 asked the government to frame guidelines on the issue.

VK Gupta, a deputy manager in NTPC, had written to the bench saying his sister died in March 2012 and her desire was to donate her body to the Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation (ORBO) at AIIMS for research work.

She had registered with the ORBO for the same during her lifetime.

Gupta said that after his sister died, he had approached the ORBO for donation of the body but the people there said they will accept the body only after getting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from police.

However, when he approached police for the NOC, he was told that it is issued only after post-mortem examination.

The ORBO, however, does not accept bodies in which post-mortem examination is done.

Gupta asked the court to direct the central and city governments to implement the scheme of donating bodies and its parts posthumously in public interest.

The ORBO was set up in AIIMS with a purpose of encouraging organ donation, fair and equitable distribution and optimum utilisation of organs.