SC committee presents recommendations to curb illegal organ trade

KARACHI: The committee formed by the Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday presented its recommendations to curb the illegal trade of organs in the country.

Speaking to the media at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), Dr Adeeb Rizvi and former attorney general Munir A Malik said that the committee presented several recommendations after a detailed inspection and thorough observation of the issue of illegal organ transplantation.

They said that the most effective way to curb commercialisation and sale of organs and tissues is that the state, civil society, medical practitioners and healthcare providers proactively promote the donation of organs and national and provincial registries be established at state’s expense to create a deceased donor database and bank.

“The state should support public hospitals in providing free-of-cost transplantation to all patients, and provide lifelong care to donors and recipients and the capacity of all monitoring authorities should be exponentially enhanced,” the committee recommended. “The state should institute mechanisms that enable all citizens who desire to join the deceased donor program to exercise the option of donating a lifetime gift of organs,” the committee added.

The committee noted that law enforcement agencies and prosecutors have expressed their frustration over provisions in federal and provincial laws on transplantation.

“The monitoring authority must ensure that it acts with all deliberate speed while dealing with the complaints brought to its knowledge from any source, particularly from the vigilance committees of various law enforcement agencies and that suitable rules be framed to prescribe the manner of filing complaints with the monitoring authority and for their expeditious disposal,” the committee recommended.

It also recommended that transplant activities conducted at places other than establishments recognised under the Transplantation Acts and Rules be punished under the regular penal laws and for that purpose an additional section be added in the Pakistan Penal Code through an amendment made by the parliament in an exercise of powers under article 142 of the constitution.

“An appropriate amendment should be made in Schedule II to the Code of Criminal Procedure making such offence non-compoundable, non-bailable and cognisable to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Act,” the committee said.

“The monitoring authority, while granting registration or renewal, should reserve the right to review the amount charged by a registered establishment according to the prescribed criteria and to audit the transplant data and accounts maintained by the establishment,” the committee said. “At the time of grant of registration to an establishment and at the time of renewal thereof, the monitoring authority must obtain the no-objection certificate (NOC) of the relevant healthcare commission,” the committee added.

The committee said that in case of brain death donors, the respective police surgeons should provide guidelines of procedures to be followed before removing organs of the deceased donors in situations where medico-legal cases were pending and those police surgeons should be part of the procedures for brain death.

The committee further stated that for the effective implementation of the transplant law, law enforcement agencies, hospitals and civil society organisations should establish vigilance committees.

The vigilance committees should take immediate action to promptly coordinate with the secretary of the monitoring authority who should be required to dispose of complaints within 24 hours.

Dr Rizvi further concluded that the desired results could not be achieved without generating awareness regarding the illegal and voluntary donation of organs.