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26 Aug 2008
Question No: 697
Question
Name of the Person: Mr Hri Kumar Nair
To ask the Minister for Health (a) what standards are expected of hospitals’ ethics committees in discharging their functions and duties in reviewing applications for organ transfers; and (b) whether the Ministry intends to review past organ transfers to ascertain if the relevant hospitals’ ethics committees have properly discharged their functions and duties.
Reply
Reply From MOH
1 The Transplant Ethics Committee’s primary function is to ensure that a living donor has been fully informed of the nature and the risk involved in the proposed transplant surgery, and that his consent is given freely and not under duress or for any financial gain. They discharge this function through a thorough review of the medical and social history of both the donor and the recipient, the submitted personal documents and statutory declarations. They would also conduct separate interviews of the donor and recipient, before they come to any conclusion on the application. If the Committee has any doubt, they should not approve the transplant.
2. If there is evidence of misconduct by any Transplant Ethics Committee, my Ministry will investigate. As the current cases are still before the courts, I should not comment further on them.