Persons willing to donate their organs will be part of national registry

All people who are willing to donate their organs for transplant to help improve the lives of other individuals or for use in scientific research will be part of a National Donor and Transplant Registry.

The establishment of this registry is part of the legal measures tabled for human tissue and organ transplant, presented to the National Assembly on Thursday.

And this registry shall include the names of adults who have granted their consent for the donation of their organs, tissues, cells or biofluids after death.

According to the Human Organ and Tissue Transplant Bill, patients who are awaiting transplantation of organs, tissues, cells and biofluids and those recipients of organs, tissues, cells and biofluids will also be on this registry.

The National Human Organ and Tissue Transplant Agency, which would be established as per this piece of legislation, will manage, operate and maintain the donor registry.

The agency will also establish an online system of registration that ensures the security and confidentiality of the information of donors.  Transplantation is the process of taking an organ or living tissue and transferring it to another part of the body, or another individual’s body entirely. This bill deals with the implantation of those bodily components into other people’s bodies.

There is currently no legislation governing, authorising and regulating the donation of tissue and organs to persons who meet the criteria of either being a donor or recipient of such donation. But work had been ongoing over the past few months to craft new legislation.

This bill, once enacted, would provide the much-needed framework to allow people to benefit from organ transplants.

The agency will also be empowered to implement the donation process, wherein it will coordinate with the hospitals permitted to engage in organ and tissue transplantation.

Importantly, the bill proposes that donors may be adults who are of sound mind and have received the necessary advice from a medical practitioner.

An individual who has given consent may, at any time before the removal of the organ, tissue, cell or biofluid to which that consent was given, revoke the said consent.

For the donation of tissues, organs, cells or biofluids by minors, an Independent Assessment Committee shall be established by the Chief Medical Officer or the Director of Medical Services of the designated hospital where the bodily component will be transplanted.

This committee, according to the Bill, is expected to have a minimum of three members, one of which should be a psychologist or psychiatrist.