Every year, around half five lakh Indians lose their lives while waiting for an organ transplant. This is an avoidable tragedy and calls for strong action to address the gap between organ need and availability. We must encourage a culture of organ donation and ensure that India’s organ donation rate which, at only 0.65 per million population, is among the lowest in the world whereas Spain and Croatia have 32–36 donors per million population. One of the key factors for this is that many potential organ donations are lost in the space between hesitation and action.The barriers to organ donation in our society are largely social and informational. Many families are simply not aware that a single donor can save up to eight lives after death through donation of the organs which include heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, pancreas and more. Misconceptions and cultural myths also persist with family members who are afraid that retrieval of the organs after death will disfigure the body or interfere with last rites.Others may have unfounded fears that doctors might not make every effort to save a registered donor’s life. This lack of understanding, combined with deeply ingrained taboos around death, is what has led to hesitation and reluctance, keeping our deceased organ donation rates low.To build a positive culture of organ donation, we must collectively dispel these myths and normalise the idea of giving life in the event of one’s own death. The fact is that deceased donor organs are donated after a person’s death has been confirmed using neurological criteria, also known as ‘brainstem death’. This is determined by a panel of four physicians who determine brain stem death along with the hospital’s registered practitioner.Open conversations led by healthcare providers, religious leaders, and community champions can help reassure people that organ donation is both ethical and deeply humane. Every major religion endorses the saving of lives, and donating organs is often called the “gift of life” for good reason. Public awareness campaigns and educational programs are crucial to inculcate the understanding that brain death is a medically defined end-of-life and that organ retrieval is carried out with utmost respect and care.It is also important to celebrate the compassion of donor families. In their grief, their decision to donate a loved one’s organs is an act of heroic altruism that deserves to be acknowledged and appreciated. These are the stories that can move hearts and change minds. In his Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the parents of a 39-day-old baby, who had passed away due to a rare congenital condition, for deciding to donate her organs and save people’s lives. Such stories remind us that even in death, each of us has the power to save lives and this acknowledgement by none less than the Prime Minister will have motivated many others to decide to donate their organs after death. By publicly acknowledging and thanking donor families, the message that organ donation is a valued societal contribution is reinforced.The public health impact of embracing organ donation on a large scale is immense. Each successful transplant means one less person on lifelong dialysis or waiting indefinitely for a heart or liver, and one more individual who can return to a productive, healthy life. This also has a positive ripple effect on families, a fall in medical costs and the overall burden of disease. Organ transplant programs are an important integral part of any advanced healthcare system for saving lives that would otherwise be lost.There are encouraging signs that attitudes are slowly changing. Awareness initiatives have begun to make a difference, with India’s annual organ donations climbing from fewer than 5,000 in 2013 to over 15,000 by 2022. But we have a long way to go. National Organ Donation Day, observed each year, is an occasion to spark conversations and encourage people to pledge their organs. The vision is to make organ donation not a rare act of generosity but a common social norm. Just as donating blood has become widely accepted, donating organs after death should become a natural decision. one that families discuss in advance and support as a legacy of kindness.Ahieving this shift will need us to make sustained efforts across multiple fronts. Organ donation can be included in school curricula to instil awareness from a young age. Community pledge drives can make registering as a donor easy. Hospitals should incorporate donation counselling as a standard part of end-of-life care, ensuring families are compassionately informed of the option. At the same time, the process of pledging organs must be kept simple and accessible to all.Let this be our collective pledge: to replace loss with life, grief with giving, and hesitation with hope. Together, we can transform organ donation into a national mission—and ensure that no Indian dies waiting for a second chance at life.(Dr. Prathap C Reddy is the founder-chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group)
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