DOH reviewing ban on non-directed organ donation

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) is now reviewing the ban on non-directed organ donation because of the rising number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) waiting for kidney donors.

“The review is now ongoing.  It’s true that there are now many patients on the waiting list. That’s the problem with that disease, someone must sacrifice for another to survive,” said Health Secretary Enrique Ona, a practicing kidney transplant surgeon before his appointment to the DOH.

Earlier, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) asked the DOH to re-evaluate the ban on non-directed organ donation, which means a living donor cannot donate an organ without an intended donor.

PMA argued that 32 patients have died since 2007 while waiting for kidney transplants.

The ban was imposed to prevent the commercialization of kidney donation, but the PMA believes it also denies patients suffering from ESRD a chance to survive.

“When that policy was conceptualized, (the assertion was that these donors) are sellers.  I don’t think that’s true,” said Ona.

Prior to the ban on non-directed organ donation, the DOH had also banned foreign ERSD patients from receiving kidneys from Filipino donors not related to them by consanguinity.

The PMA said there are 571 ESRD patients at the government-run National Kidney and Transplant Institute waiting for transplants.

The number of kidney transplants performed at the institute has gone down by 20 percent, but the demand for kidney donations has increased by 20 percent every year.  –Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star)