Legalizing SoHO Donations
SoHO stands for “substances of human origin” – simply put, it refers to human organs, blood and tissues. While one can donate any of these in India, it is illegal to be paid for it. The reason behind the law making it illegal for money to change hands for such transactions was to prevent desperate folks from making donations for money, without fully understanding the risks. Pranay Kotasthane pointed out another aspect of SoHO in India – 80% of living organ donations are by women; and 80% of recipients are men. This would seem to be because of our societal bias with women probably being pressurized to donate organs for their male relatives in need. Does this ban on payments for SoHO have any negative consequence? First, there is a shortage of SoHO in India – one estimate says around 12,000 people die daily because of blood shortage. Inevitably, SoHO-for-cash systems have arisen – they are, of course, illegal. How many people could get blood had the law not been the...