BY FAZEENA SALEEM
DOHA: A law is on the anvil to prevent trade in human organs and regulate organ transplant.
The proposed legislation also amends some provisions of a human organ transplant law that was put in force some 18 years ago when organ donation was almost unheard of here.
Since 1997 when Law Number 21 was implemented many changes have taken place which necessitate replacing the legislation.
For example, kidney transplants were not as common in those days. Liver transplants and transplants among children were not taking place.
Some features like deceased organ donations (people pledging their organs for transplant after death) were also not practiced here. The practice began only since 2011 after a Doha Donation Accord was issued.
“Moreover, social and personal attitudes towards organ donation are changing in Qatar and more and more people are coming forward to pledge their organs for transplant,” said Dr Riyadh Fadhil, head of transplant unit at Hamad Medical Corporation.
This means that a new law is needed to cope with the changes taking place, Dr Fadhil said in remarks to this newspaper when told that a new law was indeed in the pipeline.
A draft law carrying some new features and amending some provisions of the present legislation (Law No 21 of 1997) was approved by the State Cabinet earlier and forwarded to the Advisory Council for review and recommendations.
After discussions the Council made some recommendations and sent the draft law back to the Cabinet. The draft seeks to ban trade in human organs.
At its routine weekly meeting yesterday chaired by Prime Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Cabinet took the “necessary measures” to implement the draft law, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
According to the draft law, no organ, tissue or cell shall be transplanted from a living person to another except for the urgency to save the recipient’s life or for unavoidable treatment of a medical condition. A will to donate will be made in the presence of two eligible witnesses. At no cost will a human organ, cells or tissues be sold or bought for a compensation of any nature. Inviting, advertising, brokering or promoting donations will be prohibited, says
the draft. The Peninsula
