Nod for eye donation to be made mandatory in Maharashtra

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, June 16, 2015: The state’s cornea collection is likely to get a substantial boost with the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) assuring the Bombay high court in writing that 202 municipalities and 36 corporations have been told to mandatorily seek consent for eye donations while issuing a medical death certificate.

Experts say effective implementation of the decision could wipe out cases of corneal blindness from the state in less than a year.

Champions of eye donations are rejoicing their fruits of labour as the decision has not come without its share of bureaucratic hassles. A clear communication to seek ’mandatory request’ was first sent from the Union health ministry to state health departments in February 2011.

But Maharashtra’s DHS complicated matters by seeking legal opinion on how consent can be sought for eyes in a medical certificate issued 21 days after death when eyeballs have to be retrieved within six hours of death. It took the state machinery nearly two years to understand that the column was to be incorporated in the ’medical or cause of death certificate’ issued soon after death and necessary for cremation or burial.



Courtesy: TOI