MANILA, Philippines?The Department of Health is setting up a nationwide organ-donor register in a bid to stop the practice of the poor selling their kidneys to make ends meet.

Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral said she hoped the project would help provide donor organs for the estimated 9,000 Filipinos suffering from kidney failure every year.

The DOH initiative was made ?in response to the Philippine commitment to the 2008 Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism and the 63rd World Health Assembly Resolution on Organ Donation for governments to take appropriate actions in increasing the transplant of kidneys and other organs from deceased donors.?

?We seek not only to improve an important service to many patients in need of organ transplantation, but also to assure that the illegal traffic of organs that has victimized many of our countrymen for many years will not be repeated,? Cabral said yesterday.

HOPE donor card

Over the past decade, the Philippines has gained an international reputation as a hub for the illegal traffic in human organs from living donors, with some hospitals catering to wealthy foreign patients requiring kidney transplants.
The DOH head issued an administrative order on the program, which she said ?shall set the policies and guidelines for a deceased donors program for our country that will be feasible, equitable and ethical.?

At the same time, the nongovernmental group, Human Organ Preservation Effort (HOPE) launched its ?Organ Donor Card Project.?

A HOPE donor card is the ?equivalent of a legal consent document? allowing an individual to donate any of his body organ or organs shortly after his death.

Living-related

Before a person can become a cadaver donor, he or she must be certified as brain dead.

Once tagged as brain dead, among the organs that can be harvested from the donor include kidneys, the liver, bone marrow, pancreas, lungs, corneas and the heart.

For those without HOPE donor cards, a signed consent of the nearest kin is needed.

On the other hand, the only organs that can be donated under ?living-related organ donations? are one kidney, bone marrow and a part of the liver, provided they would not cause any danger to the donor?s life.

In 2008, Cabral, then Social Welfare Secretary, coordinated with the Department of Justice and the DOH in strengthening the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 9208, otherwise known as the ?Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act of 2003.? Jerry E. Esplanada, AFP