...... RIGHT TO HEALTH 67 ii) To examine areas relating to unsafe drugs and medical devices from the perspective of the Tenth Plan schemes for drug safety [Centre and State’s] and recommendations of Mashelkar Committee. iii) Stock taking of reported health problems [from Consumer Courts, Civil Courts and State Health Departments] due to sub-standard and spurious and hazardous drugs and devices and suggest remedial measures. At the time of writing of this report, the Expert Group has just commenced its work. F] Illegal Trade in Human Organs 6.13 The Commission took up the issue of illegal trade in human organs and referred it to its Core Group on Health. The Core Group of experts on Health deliberated on the issue and have collectively expressed the view that the clause relating to ‘compassionate donation’ in the Organ Transplantation Act has been frequently exploited in an unethical manner, which is violative of human rights. The core group has suggested the following remedial measures: a) State Medical Councils should screen the records of hospitals performing organ transplants (especially kidney transplants) and estimate the proportion of transplants which have been made through a ‘compassionate donor’ mechanism. In case of kidney transplants, wherever the proportion has exceeded 5% of the cases performed in any of the past 5 years, the State Medical Council should initiate a full fledged enquiry into the background of the donors and the recipients, as well as a careful documentation of the follow-up health status of the donor and the nature of after care provided by the concerned hospital. Wherever police enquiries are needed for such background checks, the help of the State Human Rights Commission may be sought for providing appropriate directions to the State agencies. b) Cadaver Transplant programmes should be promoted to reduce the demand for ‘live donors’. c) Facilities for chronic renal dialysis should be increased and improved in hospitals, to provide alternatives to kidney transplantation. d) Better facilities should be provided for transparent and effective counseling of prospective donors. Wherever possible, a mechanism should be established for independent verification of the veracity of ‘compassionate donation’ by a group of experts which is external to the hospital wherein the transplant procedure is proposed to be performed. ANNUAL REPORT 2003-04