Government bucks market in human organs
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has reiterated its opposition to the commercialization of human organ donations, as Congress studies pending bills on regulating such donations.
The DSWD said it had written Negros Occidental Representative Alfredo Marañon III, House health committee chairman, to convey its opposition to the regulation of human organ donations, which was tantamount to the “selling and marketing of human organs.”
The DSWD said it did not intend to support the proposed creation of the Philippine Network for Organ Sharing.
But the welfare agency said it would support a House bill that would put in place policies prohibiting and penalizing the commercial donation of human organs, tissues or any part of the human body.
The DSWD said minors should also be barred from donating organs, even to relatives.
But those 18 and above could do so, as long as they were of sound mind and understood the nature and consequences of their decision to give a part of their body to another person. There should also be written consent, the agency said.
Article continues after this advertisementThe DSWD said a person could donate an organ to another person not his relative only after members of the recipient’s family had been ruled out as donors.
Article continues after this advertisementThe donor must also be given after-care services as well as paid for lost wages, travel and housing. The organ recipient may reimburse these expenses.
The DSWD also said the Department of Health should come up with a comprehensive program for long-term monitoring of donors who may develop medical problems afterward.
Measures pending in the House of Representatives would seek to regulate the donation and transplantation of human organs and tissues, provide penalties for violations, and establish a national program for harvesting organs from deceased donors.
Other bills seek to put in place stringent procedures for organ donations by inmates of the New Bilibid Prison, and to address the reported use of children as organ donors for rich patients who need new kidneys.
