Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Human Organ Transplant Act

Not very long ago, the government legalized organ donation. In my opinion, the terms of the Human Organ Transplant Act are rather reasonable, although it does have some fairly controversial aspects.
The Human Organ Transplant Act (commonly known as HOTA) is essentially an opt-out scheme which allows for various organs (the heart, liver, kidneys, and cornea) to be recovered and stored when the person in the scheme dies. It also covers other things like organ donation from living donors.
In my opinion, this part of HOTA is reasonable, and is generally a good idea. With such a scheme, this would supply more organs to needy donors; there is currently a shortage of organs needed for organ transplants. The purpose of making the scheme is an opt-out scheme is two-fold: firstly, it would subtly encourage people to donate their organs, simply because remaining opted-in is much more convinient that having to opt oneself out. Furthermore, this settles most problems with people who are not in favour of organ donation, or their religion prohibits them from doing so, since they can opt out if they want to.
What is somewhat problematic about HOTA is the following section:
"Certain contracts, etc., to be void
14. —(1) Subject to this section, a contract or arrangement under which a person agrees, for valuable consideration, whether given or to be given to himself or to another person, to the sale or supply of any organ or blood from his body or from the body of another person, whether before or after his death or the death of the other person, as the case may be, shall be void.
(2) A person who enters into a contract or arrangement of the kind referred to in subsection (1) and to which that subsection applies shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.
(3) Subsection (1) shall not apply to or in relation to —
(a) a contract or arrangement providing only for the reimbursement of any expenses necessarily incurred by a person in relation to the removal of any organ or blood in accordance with the provisions of any other written law; and
(b) any scheme introduced or approved by the Government granting medical benefits or privileges to any organ or blood donor and any member of the donor’s family or any person nominated by the donor." (from the Statutes of Singapore Online, Chapter 131A)
This essentially means that donors are to recieve an agreed amount of money from the organ recipient. This has been often criticised as being trading in organs, which has several problems, such as rich people exploiting the less well-to-do by paying them very little in exchange for organs. Furthermore, people who have the money for organ transplants now would be able to "cut the queue" since they are able to pay for such transplants.
Essentially, what the government has to do is to prevent abuse of the system, which one of the challenges that the government faces.

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