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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on October 18, 2008, 12:54:43 PM
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Organ sale like prostitution - DSWD
10/18/2008 | 05:05 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Likening the practice to "prostitution," social Welfare secretary Esperanza Cabral reiterated Friday her call to stop the sale of human organs.
Cabral made her call during a forum on the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for organ trafficking at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Manila.
"(Selling organs) is like prostitution where victims/sellers are stripped of their dignity as human beings although in organ trafficking, it is much worse - sellers are faced with long term health consequences that would ultimately serve to pull them deeper into the clutches of poverty," she said in her closing remarks.
Excerpts of the remarks were posted on the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Web site Friday night.
Cabral said there are so many cases of living non-related donors who "donate" because of monetary compensation but later on suffer health complications because of the sale of their organs.
"The donors do not show any social or economic improvement from the sale of their organs, they remain as poor as before only this time, unhealthier," she said.
Republic Act 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, provides that "to recruit, hire, adopt, transport, or abduct a person by means of threat or use of force, fraud, deceit, coercion or intimidation, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person for the purpose of removal or sale of organs of a person" is prohibited.
Cabral said IRRs particularly dealing with organ trafficking will address the apparent gaps in previous IRR and existing policies on "donation" of organ by a living non-related donor.
The proposed IRR emphasizes that the selling or buying of human organs is strictly prohibited.
Nevertheless, the right for transplantation of voluntarily donated human organs for therapeutic purposes shall not be hampered.
The proposed IRR concurs that donation of human organs shall be guided by the rules under the 1991 World Health Organization Guiding Principles on Human Organ Transplantation.
Under such rules, organs for transplantation should be removed preferably from the bodies of deceased persons; adult living persons may donate organs but should be genetically related to recipients; human body cannot be the subject of commercial transactions; giving or receiving payment for organs should be prohibited.
The proposed IRR also highlights the responsibility of the Department of Health to develop a comprehensive program for long term monitoring of donors after donation and financial support for further healthcare of donors who incur any medical problems after donation.
"I pin high hopes on today's forum. Given that all of us in this room today are vested with the mandate to serve the Filipino people, let me reiterate once again that it is imperative that that we protect the dignity and sanctity of the human body by discouraging trafficking in all forms and that even if the sale of an organ is consensual, we must uphold the fact that it is not just illegal but also immoral," Cabral said.
Organizing the forum was the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking co-chaired by the Department of Justice and the DSWD.
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/127810/Organ-sale-like-prostitution---DSWD