I am an activist working for organ donation popularization in India, a country with a dismally low rate (0.5 per million). Apart from working for deceased donation, I had also offered my own organs as a living donor, but the donation couldn't go through due to unfortunate legal hurdles in unrelated living donation in India.
While reading a recent paper on the challenges, I found the following:
Sensitization of doctors regarding brain stem death declaration is one of the biggest challenges encountered by the transplant programme in India.
A major change in the transplant laws can significantly increase the deceased donor pool if declaration of brain stem death is made mandatory for every hospital.
Could the experts here please elaborate, in some detail, what is meant here? How are the brain stem deaths dealt with now, in the absence of such a law? Is it not reported/communicated? Are only the authorities not informed? Or is the family also not informed? Why is a separate law needed? How is it legal to not inform a death?
In other words, my question is what exactly is lacking today and why?
Thank you so much for this community. Your answer will guide my activist group's efforts.