Doctors at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City perform an organ transplantation. The hospital cooperate with another one to transplant two corneal, two kidneys, a heart and a liver donated by a 25-year-old woman for six people. (Photo: VNA) According to Senior Colonel Dinh Van Trinh, Deputy Head ofDivision 5, Criminal Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security,the criminals are organised with each individual in charge of different tasksin the procedures, including approaching, getting to know buyers and sellers,negotiating, faking the documents, in order to legalise their criminal acts inthe name of humanitarian, not-for-profit purpose.
They approach people who want to buy body organs at hospitals orlook for buyers and sellers via social network platforms, then set the pricesand legalise their acts with fake documents in order to send the buyers/sellersto hospitals to have organs removed and transplanted, Trinh said at aconference on organ donation registration and the prevention of human organ andtissue trafficking held on February 6.
"Many brokers had been victims of this type of crime beforeand are aware of the high demand and profits. They collided and connected withother individuals to develop a ring," Trinh said at the event which washeld by the Ministry of Health and Vietnam Health Economics Association.
"Benefits mostly go to brokers. They charge people in need ofkidney 800 million VND to 1 billion VND (33,800-42,200 USD) a case but theseller gets 200-250 million VND only. Sellers do not want to reveal theiridentity, making it hard to identify brokers.”
According to Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan, after morethan 15 years of implementation, many provisions of the Law on donation,removal and transplantation of human tissues and organs andthe donation and recovery of cadavers have revealed shortcomings.Many are no longer consistent with practice, including regulations onregistration of donations and the issue of prevention and combat of humantissue and organ trafficking.
He noted that the demand for tissue and organ transplants in Vietnamwas huge with dozen of thousands of cases in need of kidney and/or livertransplants and thousands in need of transplantation of other organs andtissues.
"More than 90% of donated organs transplanted in Vietnam arefrom living donors. There have been illegal acts involved in the traffickingand brokering of trafficking of organs and tissues, leaving serious socialconsequences. It is imperative to improve the legal frameworks and havesolutions to prevent and combat the trafficking of organs and tissues in Vietnam,"he said.
He suggested we offer both online and offline registration to makeit more convenient for those who want to donate.
As part of the efforts to combat organ trafficking, he said, itwas important to strengthen communication work to raise public awareness of themeaning of organ donation while having a mechanism to avoid direct contactbetween the donor and organ recipient to ensure transparency in an organdonation activity.
At the conference, many experts recommended amending the Law ondonation, removal and transplantation of human tissues andorgans and the donation and recovery of cadavers.
Amendments include adding the organ donor designationto driver licences or identity cards.
Nguyen Hoang Phuc, Deputy Director of the Vietnam NationalCoordinating Center for Human Organ Transplantation, said when people doidentity card or apply for a driving licence, they will be asked whetherto agree to become an organ donor.
This will help to increase the number of organ donors and help tolimit the illegal trafficking of organs from living donors.
Tran Ngoc Sinh, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the VietnamOrgan Transplant Association, suggested Vietnam join the Declaration ofIstanbul, which has been made in 2008 to address the urgent and growingproblems posed by unethical activities involving organ trafficking andtrafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal.
The declaration has been endorsed by more than 135 national andinternational medical societies and governmental bodies involved in organtransplantation.
The Declaration clarifies the issues of transplanttourism, trafficking and commercialism and provides ethicalguidelines for practice in organ donation and transplantation
“Endorsing the Declaration will help to ensure Vietnam complieswith standards and does not tolerate tissue and organ trafficking,” Sinhsaid.
A total of 63,552 people have registered to be organ donors in Vietnam.As many as 7,297 transplants have been performed in Vietnam for eight types oforgans, of which more than 6,000 were kidney transplants./.
VNA
