Heena Sharma Blog

Turns out, the usage of marijuana by kidney donors has no measurable effect on the outcome of kidney transplants for donors or recipients. A new study in Clinical Kidney Journal reviewed living kidney  transplants performed between January 2000 and May 2016 in a single academic institution. Donor and recipient groups were each divided into two groups by donor marijuana usage, comparing the outcomes of the transplants using a variety of tests. Researchers reviewed 294 living donor medical records, including 31 marijuana using donors. They also reviewed 230 living kidney recipient records, including 27 cannabis-using kidney recipients. The use of grass in the United States has been steadily increasing over the last 10 years. Marijuana use has more than doubled between 2001 and 2013, with 54.1 per cent of adolescents claiming to have initiated its use by the age of 21. There is a shortage of kidneys available for transplantation. As of 2018, there are nearly 100,00...

This week, the government of Kerala announced its intention to implement mandatory requirement for brain death reporting in intensive care units of the state, de-linking it from organ donation . This was done in response to concerns raised by civil society organisations about the perception of selective brain-death declarations in order to facilitate removal and transplantation of organ to benefit a more affluent section of society who are treated in private hospitals. This is not a new concern. Last month, an enquiry instituted by the Tamil Nadu government found that organs from deceased donors were being allocated preferentially to foreign nationals, especially those from the Middle East, Central Asian republics and Africa. Especially concerning is the data on lungs and hearts: 25-33% of such organs are routinely given to foreign nationals. The reasons put forward are exhaustion of Indians on the wait list, medical non-fitness of listed Indian recipients, or refusal bec...