Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994
No: 42 Dated: Jul, 08 1994
Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994
(Act No. 42 of 1994)
An Act to provide for the regulation of removal, storage and transplantation of human organs and tissues for therapeutic purposes and for the prevention of commercial dealings in human organs and tissues and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto .
Whereas it is expedient to provide for the regulation of removal, storage and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes and for the prevention of commercial dealings in human organs;
And whereas Parliament has no power to make laws for the States with respect to any of the matters aforesaid except as provided in articles 249 and 250 of the Constitution;
And whereas in pursuance of clause (1) of article 252 of the Constitution, resolutions have been passed by all the Houses of the Legislatures of the States of Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra to the effect that the matters aforesaid should be regulated in those States by Parliament by law;
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Forty-fifth Year of the Republic of India as follows:
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, application and commencement .(1) This Act may be called The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act , 1994.
(2) It applies, in the first instance, to the whole of the States of Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra and to all the Union territories and it shall also apply to such other State which adopts this Act by resolution passed in that behalf under clause (1) of article 252 of the Constitution.
(3) It shall come into force in the States of Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra and in all the Union territories on such date as the Central Government may, by notification, appoint and in any other State which adopts this Act under clause (1) of article 252 of the Constitution, on the date of such adoption; and any reference in this Act to the commencement of this Act shall, in relation to any State or Union territory," means the date on which this Act comes into force in such State or Union territory.
2. Definitions .In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,
(a) advertisement includes any form of advertising whether to the public generally or to any section of the public or individually to selected persons;
(b) "Appropriate Authority"" means the Appropriate Authority appointed under section 13;
(c) "Authorisation Committee" means the committee constituted under clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (4) of section 9;
(d) "brain-stem death" means the stage at which all functions of the brain-stem have permanently and irreversibly ceased and is so certified under sub-section (6) of section 3;
(e) "deceased person" means a person in whom permanent disappearance of all evidence of life occurs, by reason of brain-stem death or in a cardio-pulmonary sense, at any time after live birth has taken place;
(f) "donor" means any person, not less than eighteen years of age, who voluntarily authorises the removal of any of his human organs or tissues or both for therapeutic purposes under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) of section 3;
(g) hospital includes a nursing home, clinic, medical centre, medical or teaching institution for therapeutic purposes and other like institution;
(h) "human organ" means any part of a human body consisting of a structured arrangement of tissues which, if wholly removed, cannot be replicated by the body;
(ha) "Human Organ Retrieval Centre" means a hospital,-
(i) which has adequate facilities for treating seriously ill patients who can be potential donors of organs in the event of death; and
(ii) which is registered under sub-section (1) of section 14 for retrieval of human organs;
(hb) "minor" means a person who has not completed the age of eighteen years;
(i) "near relative" means spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, grandson or granddaughter;
(j) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(k) "payment" means payment in money or moneys worth but does not include any payment for defraying or reimbursing
(i) the cost of removing, transporting or preserving the human organ or tissue or both to be supplied; or
(ii) any expenses or loss of earnings incurred by a person so far as reasonably and directly attributable to his supplying any human organ or tissue or both from his body;
(l) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(m) "recipient" means a person into whom any human organ or tissue or both is, or is proposed to be, transplanted;
(n) "registered medical practitioner" means a medical practitioner who possesses any recognised medical qualification as defined in clause (h) of section 2 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (102 of 1956), and who is enrolled on a State Medical Register as defined in clause (k) of that section;
(o) "therapeutic purposes" means systematic treatment of any disease or the measures to improve health according to any particular method or modality;
(oa) "tissue" means a group of cells, except blood, performing a particular function in the human body;
(ob) "Tissue Bank" means a facility registered under section 14A for carrying out any activity relating to the recovery, screening, testing, processing, storage and distribution of tissues, but does not include a Blood Bank;
(p) transplantation" means the grafting of any human organ or tissue or both from any living person or deceased person to some other living person for therapeutic purposes.
(q) "transplant co-ordinator" means a person appointed by the hospital for coordinating all matters relating to removal or transplantation of human organs or tissues or both and for assisting the authority for removal of human organs in accordance with the provisions of section 3.