More lives saved under wider organ donation law

08 Jul 2005

Sixty five more people got a new lease of life, with additional organs available for transplantation under the revised Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA). Since 1 July 2004, HOTA covers not just kidneys but also liver, heart and cornea. The opt-out organ donation law allows for organs to be removed in the event of death from all causes.

In the past 12 months, there have been 19 HOTA donors, 3 of whom died of accidents and 16 of non-accidental causes. Without the revision, there would only have been 6 kidneys transplanted under HOTA from the 3 donors who died of accidents. With the revision of HOTA, an additional 31 kidneys, 5 livers, 2 hearts and 27 corneas were transplanted. This means an additional 65 people benefited from the wider organ donation law.

The revised HOTA has also enhanced the living donor transplant programme. A total of 23 local patients received kidneys from living donors and 5 local patients were transplanted with livers from living donors. The Ministry will continue to work with hospitals and volunteer welfare organisations to increase the number of living donor organ transplants.

Presently, there are 636 people in need of a kidney transplant, 12 for liver, 3 for heart and 11 for cornea. The Ministry would like to encourage Singaporeans to continue their support for the organ transplant programme. Their gifts of life will go a long way towards saving lives and easing the suffering of patients whose lives have been shattered by organ failure. It will also greatly reduce the waiting time for organ transplants.