Proposed organ donation bill akin to opening 'kidney bazaar' for foreigners

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Imtiaz Ali
By extending the definition of close blood relatives, suggesting compensations for donors and reserving a 10-percent ‘quota’ for foreigners, the proposed organs bill would likely increase “commercialism” in the human organs, , Transplant Society of Pakistan (TSP) President Dr S. Adibul Hasan Rizvi said on Wednesday. He further said that this menace had given a bad name to the country and destroyed the very purpose of the organs ordinance, promulgated last year to eliminate the kidney mafia.

“The Bill, if enacted would catapult our country back to the dreadful conditions that prevailed before the promulgation of the Ordinance,” he said in his detailed comments on the “Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (amendment) Bill 2008”, which he sent to Human Organ Transplant Authority (Hota) and distributed among media-men during visit of federal health secretary, Suleman Ghani to SIUT on Wednesday here.

Talking about the proposal to add half-brother and half-sister in the definition of close blood relative and to exclude ‘spouse’ from there, he said it was susceptible to a wide meaning within our social milieu. Elaborating, he said in our traditions and under Islamic law, any person with whom one can not engage in matrimonial engagement is a brother or sister and half-brother and half-sister could be understood to fall under that ambit.

About the amendment in section 3(2) of the Ordinance pertaining to giving ‘compensation’ to donor, Dr. Rizvi opined that if implemented, it will lead the way towards ‘legalised commercialism’ in human organ donation. The whole ordinance had been promulgated to avoid such unethical practices and if the proposals are implemented, they will bring back the same in legalised and camouflaged manner.

He added that the said section was the soul of the Ordinance which complies with the norms of natural justice that nobody could be denied of a possibility of availability of the organ, for the reason that the same is not available from the close relatives. He said by suggesting compensation payable to a donor, such amendment envisages commercial dealing and promotes direct financial deals between buyers and sellers of human organs. “This clearly reflects that intention of the proposed amendment is to allow through legal means the price (which is being camouflaged as compensation) for a human organ,” he said.

Dilating upon proposed amendment in section 7 of the Ordinance, which allows foreigners to get organs from Pakistanis which should be 10 per cent of the total number of transplantation, the TSP head regretted that the proposer(s) of the bill may not be fully aware of circumstances. “There appears to be incomplete knowledge of national disgrace in the form of the ’organ bazaar’ as was prevalent prior to the introduction of this Ordinance,” the letter said.

The SIUT head said until the promulgation of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance 2007, the country had become a leading destination for “kidney tourism,” where organised kidney trade mafia comprising middle-men, so-called hospitals and persons motivated by greed were exploiting the poor, the destitute, and the illiterate.

He said the wealthy foreigners who were fearful of the social and ethical taboos of their own country or the prohibitive cost in their own lands were looking for cheaper havens where the kidney trade was not a crime.

He said the ethos of the Ordinance was to “reestablish national self-respect, empower the weaker sections of society to protect them from exploitation, eliminate the organ mafia and commercialism in organs a punishable crime.”

The TSP head said the Ordinance was a major step forward in curbing the mischief and protecting the weak but the proposed bill under the garb of removing “lacunas” would deface the Ordinance by destroying the soul and character of the original legislation.

He said these amendments for the ordinance have been proposed without taking into account the prevalent practices of organ trade in Pakistan, the technical nature of transplant of human organ, the concept underlined in international best practices, the legislations in various regional and Islamic countries and other relevant factors.

The TSP reiterated that any “unilateral action” without taking the nation along on this matter will lead to “undesirable consequences.”

The proposed bill pending before the Parliament’s standing committee has been moved by MNA Yasmeen Rehman and coauthored by Dr Azra Pechuho and Shamshad Bachani.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=139981