Monday, March 12, 2012

Ministry: Laws on organ transplant need to be drafted

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: Laws governing organ transplantation for living unrelated cases must be drafted carefully to prevent abuse, said the Health Ministry.

“The problem with living unrelated cases is assessing the intention and motivation. We cannot exclude the commercial factor,” said Dr Hirman Ismail, principal assistant director from the transplantation unit.

He added that there were concerns about abuse because there had been cases where people were kidnapped for their organs in other countries.

“We don’t want this to happen here,” he said.

Dr Hirman was speaking on “Living Unrelated Kidney Transplant in Malaysia” at the World Kidney Day 2012 forum at the Prince Court Medical Centre here yesterday.

“The term ‘living unrelated’ means someone who is a friend. Anyone can say he is a friend of the recipient.

“Such cases have to be referred to the Unrelated Transplant Approval Committee set up a few years ago,” he said.

He added that applications must come from the doctor and the recipient. This could only be considered when there was no alternative treatment, and if there was no compatible organ donor in the family.

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