Legislation on the cards to regulate organ donation

Feb 03, 2017 News

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–five kidney failure patients to shortly undergo surgery by visiting team

After several years of concerns that Guyana has been infiltrated by a black market for human organs, intervening measures are being issued by recently appointed Senior Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence.
Moves in this regard are being fast-tracked through planned discussions between the Minister and University of Calgary Professor, Serdar Yilmaz. According to information disseminated by the Ministry, Yilmaz, who will visit Guyana this month, will meet with local stakeholders to continue discussions leading to fine tuning of the content of a draft legislation.
The proposed legislation is one that will seek to outlaw commercial human organ harvesting, transplant tourism and organ trafficking which have been known to be very attractive on the lucrative but illegal global black market.
It has been revealed that Yilmaz, Ministry of Public Health officials and the representatives of the Attorney General’s Chambers are scheduled for further talks to help Guyana develop its legislation to regulate Brain and Cardio/Respiratory Death Law, and organ Transplantation Law.
“The former will set the rules which define the precise circumstances and mechanisms under which organs of a deceased person can be donated, while the latter will guarantee donor and recipient safety and prohibit unethical practices such as transplant tourism, commercial organ harvesting sales and organ trafficking for the lucrative black market,” according to information shared by Public Relations Officer, Mr. Terrence Esseboom.
It was Esseboom, too, who yesterday disseminated information on the organ black market which among other things amplified that illegal organ harvesting has been linked to the equally notorious global business of trafficking in persons (TIP).
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that patients in the United States of America can pay as much as US$70,000 to over US$160,000 for a transplant package.
More than 120,000 patients in the US are reportedly in need of various forms of organ transplants; they ae in need of kidneys, bone marrow, liver, lung, intestine and cornea. It is believed too that five new persons per hour are added to the waiting list in the US.
But according to figures released by WHO of the 106,879 organs transplanted (legally and illegally) in 2010, around 73,179 were kidneys, a state of affairs which is fuelled by an increase in renal failure.
This condition is in fact driven by a global rise in diet-related conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems.
Guyana is no stranger to renal failure. There have been reports of instances of sale of kidneys for kidney transplants too. However, most of the patients operated on here, reportedly got their kidneys from family members who were willing to donate.
This however has not stopped several reports from surfacing that suggest that at least two patients were required to procure their own kidneys from persons willing to sell.
Founder of the Doobay Renal Centre, Dr. Budhendra Doobay, had told this publication that while he doesn’t have any statistics about the transplants conducted here, he has been privy to information that two patients were listed among those procuring kidneys for the purpose of transplantation.
”I do know two of our patients from our dialysis centre went and I am told, and I don’t think I am wrong, they bought kidneys…one bought a kidney for $1.5 million and died a week or two after the operation. Another gentleman I’m told bought a kidney for $8 million and he died too,” Dr. Doobay had disclosed.
Minister Lawrence has lauded the work of Professor Yilmaz to aid the quest to bring an end to any such activities and by pushing for the necessary legislation for organ donation and to ensure that the legislation and necessary regulations are on the local statute books.
Meanwhile, information from the Public Health Ministry is that while in Guyana, Professor Yilmaz will lead a team of experts to perform five kidney transplant surgeries on Guyanese patients. During their stay here too, the team will also do a needs assessment to improve systems in the department of the GPHC.
Kidney transplant surgery is done free of cost at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation but could reportedly cost as much as US$40,000 ($8M) at a private hospital.
Although the surgery cost is free at the GPHC, kidney failure patients are however required to help meet the $1M cost of financing a donor matching process which is done in the US.
Even without the visiting team’s support, transplant surgeries are conducted at the GPHC by Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Kishore Persaud, who currently heads the Nephrology and Dialysis Unit there.
However, it was Professor Yilmaz who was the key figure behind the establishing of Guyana’s public kidney transplant programme and advancing the Nephrology and Dialysis Unit at the GPHC.
The Unit benefits patients diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) requiring permanent dialysis. But according to reports from the hospital the financial strain of offering this service has caused the Ministry to limit the number of dialysis sessions patients are able to receive at the Unit.

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