This newsletter carries two important news items. The first is from our own union health minister, Dr. C. P Thakur about cadaver organ donation and the second is the address of the His Holiness Pope John Paul II from Rome at the Transplantation Society meeting. Since the THO (Transplantation of Human Organs) Act was passed in the parliament in 1994 it is the first time that the country’s health minister has spoken so eloquently about this programme. The year 2000 has not been good for the cadaver programme in India. There has been a general lull in the cadaver organ donation and transplantation activity in the country. Some of the institutions and organizations that started the programme with enthusiasm have either slowed down or completely stopped. There are now only a handful of hospitals in the country that are trying their best to keep the programme alive. The unrelated transplant activity is on the rise but now of course it has a legal label to it. There is almost callousness towards the programme by many senior clinicians in the transplant field who feel the cadaver programme in our country is a non-starter. The message coming from the union minister, we hope will perhaps give some boost to this flagging programme. The message about organ donation from Pope should be circulated among our own countries religious leaders for them to take a cue and also be put up perhaps in every Church in India.