January 12, 2009	Monday	Muharram 14, 1430

ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: A bill which could have made the law against organ trade ineffective has been withdrawn.

The bill for amending the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance 2007 was withdrawn by the movers at the last meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Health.

The committee’s chairman Dr Nadeem Ahsan told Dawn on Sunday that a presentation had been given to the committee by the health ministry and the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation on the adverse effects of the bill which had been moved by Dr Azra Fazal, Yasmeen Rehman and Shamshad Bachani.

The bill had proposed five amendments, including permission for donation to foreigners, a practice that had earned the country the notoriety of being an ‘organ bazaar’. The proposed amendment had sought a 10 per cent quota for donations to foreigners in medical emergencies.

“Do we intend to have an organ quota much like we had the textile quota, transferrable and saleable among hospitals or sold at a higher price when there is more demand than supply?” the committee was asked during the presentation.

Other amendments suggested provision for donation to half-brothers and half-sisters, donation by non-blood relatives and non-relatives in conditions of emergencies and expansion in the scope of the evaluation committee to include determination of compensation payable to a donor in case the recipient was not in a position to pay.

The amendments were opposed on the grounds that transplantations were not emergency procedures and the suggested changes would envisage commercial dealings and promote financial deals between buyers and sellers of human organs.

After listening to the arguments, Dr Azra voluntarily withdrew the bill.

Human Organs Transplant Authority Administrator Gen Abdul Qadir Usmani welcomed the withdrawal.

He said that prior to the promulgation of the law, 2,000 transplants had been carried out in the country and 1,500 of the recipients were foreigners. Over 15 months since the promulgation of the law in September 2007, about 800 transplants have been done, of which 96 per cent were related donations, four per cent unrelated and 0.25 per cent cadaver.