Vietnamese can go abroad to donate organs to only relatives

Vietnamese citizens can go abroad to donate their tissues and viscera to people in a foreign country, providing that they are of the same blood or related to each other within three generations, the health ministry has said.

The regulation is aimed at preventing the sales of organs of Vietnamese people in foreign countries, local newspaper Youth on Monday quoted the Legal Department under the ministry as reporting.

Also under the regulation, all foreigners and overseas Vietnamese are allowed to use tissues and viscera of Vietnamese citizens for transplant in Vietnam, providing that they are of the same blood, or they are related to each other within three generations, or the donor voluntarily offers organs to the recipient.

In November 2006, Vietnam passed the Law on Donating, Getting, Transplanting Human Issues and Organs and Donating and Getting Cadavers, under which Vietnamese citizens aged 18 upwards have the rights to donate their tissues and viscera like kidneys and livers. It also allows the establishment of private issue banks which receive, preserve, transport, supply and exchange tissues for non- commerce purposes.

The law, to take effect in July 2007, stipulates that foreigners have the rights to donate issues and organs to Vietnam and undergo issue and viscera transplants in the country.

Between 5,000 and 6,000 chronic kidney patients in Vietnam currently need to undergo kidney transplant surgery, and thousands of other local people want liver transplant, according to the country's Health Ministry. However, Vietnam is facing scarcity of kidney and liver sources for transplant, so some local patients have to undergo operation abroad at high cost.

Vietnam's first liver transplant was successfully conducted in 2004 with the liver donor being a 31-year-old man and the recipient being his 10-year-old daughter. The country has carried out kidney transplants since early 1990s.

Source: Xinhua