Human Organ Transplantation and its Trafficking in India

An Analysis

Abstract

Health care in India has assumed the status of a fundamental right through Judicial pronouncements from time to time by distilling it from an express and more pronounced fundamental right - right to life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution, apart from being a statutory or contractual right. This right to health care is all encompassing and is not confined to a particular treatment or procedure. The state has a larger responsibility to provide it and will be held responsible where it has genuinely failed the patient by not providing it, subject to, of course, reasonable restrictions. Newer procedures and treatments have considerably increased the quality of life, and transplantation of organs has markedly enhanced life expectancy. Still, there is also a negative side to this organ transplantation development. It has been reported that there is trafficking in organs in which poor, ignorant and needy fall victim as they can be easily lured because of vulnerability. This paper analyses the legal issues involved in organ transplantation and their commercial exploitation by resorting to trafficking in India.