Delhi High Court Approves Complex Kidney Swap Transplant

The Delhi High Court has approved a four-way kidney swap among patients, overturning previous rejections by a private hospital and the Union Health Ministry. The court emphasized the need for a broader legal interpretation to facilitate life-saving transplants, urging expedited approval under medical and ethical standards.

The Delhi High Court has cleared the way for a four-way kidney transplant swap among patients suffering from chronic renal disease, overturning the earlier rejections by the authorisation committee of a private hospital and the Union Health Ministry's appellate authority.

Justice Purushendra Kaurav emphasized that the narrow interpretation of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, obstructs its core purpose of providing access to essential transplants. The court directed the authorisation committee to swiftly grant approval for the swap, provided it adheres to medical and ethical guidelines.

Initially, the hospital's committee had denied the proposal, citing insufficient evaluation of near-relative donors, lack of explicit legal provision for multi-pair swaps, and potential risks of financial incentives. The appellate authority upheld this decision, interpreting Section 9(3A) of the Act as only allowing two-way swaps.

Petitioners, represented by advocates Gayatri Virmani and Disha Gupta, argued that Section 9(3A) is intended to support swap transplants when biological incompatibility exists among close relatives willing to donate. Advocate Sumit Nagpal, representing the Health Ministry, requested more time to prepare a response, highlighting the issue's significance.

The four affected patients, from various regions like Delhi, Bihar, Nagaland, and Jammu & Kashmir, asserted that this innovative kidney swap represented their only feasible lifeline. They cited a recent case from Gujarat, where an 11-transplant kidney swap chain was successfully executed.