India’s health ministry is drafting new rules for the harvesting and transplantation of human organs to tackle a severe shortage of organs and to end a trade in organs outlawed 18 years ago but thought to be still occurring.

The rules, which are likely to be finalised later this year, will govern the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, passed by the Indian parliament in 1994 and amended last year, doctors have said.

The rules are intended to improve assessment, documentation, and screening procedures when organs come from live donors and to boost the number of transplants of organs from deceased (brain stem dead) donors.

“There’s a need to sharply increase the number of organs available in the country,” Jagdish Prasad, India’s director general of health services, told the BMJ.

Transplant surgeons estimate that more than …