In her article, Jyotika Kaushik addresses an important issue, that of the increasing shortage of kidneys available for transplantation worldwide. As a solution for India, Kaushik favours the introduction of the "presumed consent" system to allow retrieval of organs from recently deceased persons. In this system, unless an individual has specifically expressed, in writing, during her/his lifetime, that he/she is unwilling to donate an organ following death, his/her organs can be routinely harvested by healthcare professionals for transplantation into others.