Manila The Social Welfare Department has requested that a Congress bill allowing the creation of a network for "organ sharing" should not be passed.
The department feels the bill calling for regulation of organ donation could lead to rampant sale of human organs and tissues, which the government has been trying to stop.
In a letter to Congressman Alfredo Maranon, chairman of the House of Representatives' committee on health, the Department of Social Welfare said it will not support a proposed bill that calls for the creation of the Philippine Network for Organ Sharing because it goes against the government's plan to create a strong law that will prohibit the sale of organs, tissues or other parts of the human body.
Punishment
This law should also include punishment for violators, said the department.
Reiterating its stand on the proposed law that prohibits the sale of human organs, the social welfare department said that minors should not be allowed to donate organs even to relatives.
Organ donors should be at least 18 years old, of sound mind and have full knowledge and consciousness of the nature and consequences of what they are doing, the social welfare department said, adding that a donor must execute a written and detailed consent about "the removal of a specific organ, for the purpose of implanting the organ into another living person".
An unrelated person could be allowed to donate organs "for therapy purposes" only if all other immediate family members are eliminated as potential donors, said the department.
An unrelated donor must be given compensation for lost wages, travel and housing expenses, and medical care during the operation, the social welfare department said, adding that the health department must develop a comprehensive programme to monitor donors, including the medical problems they may develop after donating their organs.
Earlier, the health department passed a resolution seeking to prevent donation of organs by people not related to the patient following reports that rampant sale of organs has benefited only rich patients from developed countries at the expense of patients in the Philippines.
Middlemen
In 2000, a donor could demand as much as 200,000 pesos (Dh17,261) for one kidney. Donors usually come from poor areas in Metro Manila, and are marketed by middlemen, who have ties with doctors and medical institutions.
In the 1980s, tourism for kidney transplant in the Philippines was promoted in Japan and other countries for residents suffering from malfunctioning kidneys.
