Donor can donate kidney to his brother-in-law despite opposition from wife and daughter -----Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has recently given an order that a donor can donate a kidney to his sister's husband even without the consent of the wife and daughter.A 64-year-old man suffering from chronic kidney disease since 2018 and living on daily dialysis since 2021 has been allowed by the High Court to undergo a kidney transplant from his wife's brother.                            The High Court was hearing a matter in which a joint application was made by the recipient and the donor of a kidney seeking permission from the approval committee under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act.On not getting permission from the approval committee, he approached the Appellate Authority. The Appellate Authority rejected his application on the ground that the donor's wife and daughter did not consent to donate the kidney.                                                      The proposed recipient challenged the order of the Appellate Authority, Secretary, Medical Education and Drug Department, State Government, by filing a petition in the High Court.The wife of the donor was also impleaded as a party in the petition.                                                                A division bench of Justice Gautam Patel and Justice Nila Gokhale, while hearing the matter, said that the gist of the Act is that organ donation should be voluntary.The orders of both the Approval Committee and the Appellate Authority are contrary to the Act, the orders have been passed taking into account only unnecessary considerations.The relevant factors have not been taken into account while passing the orders. The orders are clearly arbitrary and liable to be set aside.             The court said that the wife may be worried about her maintenance and financial interests but when the proposed donor says that he has made arrangements for the wife and daughter, So we don't think the wife has any reason not to give consent.                                                    The court noted that the petitioner is an old man suffering from chronic kidney disease, he has tried to get rid of this disease.But he could not find a suitable kidney donor. Patient's wife and children have a different blood group than him.The brother of the patient's wife had volunteered to donate his kidney to the patient.The donor appeared in person before the court and confirmed before the judges that he had expressed his willingness to donate organs voluntarily.                 A compatibility test of the proposed receives and donors was carried out and found to be accurate.The proposed kidney transplantation surgery was to be performed at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital Mumbai, so both had made a joint application under the Act but their applications were rejected.