New driving licences with organ donation consent
Anyone applying for the new electronic driving licence from the Motor Traffic Department (MTD) will be obliged to answer a question on joining the organ donor register to increase the number of organ donors for transplant purposes, officials said.
Action has been taken to amend forms of obtaining and renewing driving licences by including a declaration giving the consent of drivers to donate their organs and to indicate that will on the driving licence.
The Health Ministry has expedited the inclusion of information on whether a person is a donor or not in his/her driving licence to facilitate a national transplant programme to meet the existing demand for organs, Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told the Business Times.
The MTD will maintain the e-register of organ donors enabling hospital authorities to obtain vital information in the event of an accident.
This data base will help determine whether the motorists are willing to donate their organs in case of death in an accident. Motorists who are brain dead or dead via circulatory death can also donate their organs, he disclosed.
This proposal has been approved by the Cabinet in the midst of Sri Lanka increasingly having the need for a national transplant programme to meet the existing demand for organs.
Health Ministry statistics show that annually more than 2,000 people die due to kidney failure. Nearly 1,700 die due to cirrhosis or advanced liver disease; this statistic is limited to state hospitals.
More than 4,000 people die every year due to liver and kidney failure alone in this country, ministry data showed.
At present the most common form of organ donation is through live donors, he said adding that there were eight kidney transplant centres attached to national hospitals in the country.