Organ donation now legal after law enacted

| 01/08/2018 | 21 Comments

Human organ transplants in the Cayman Islands(CNS): The commencement order for the long-awaited Human Tissue Transplant Law has been signed, implementing legislation that began life almost a decade ago. The law itself was passed five years ago but it has been a long road to enacting the law and enabling organ transplant operations as well as the donation of human organs and tissue in the Cayman Islands. Dr Devi Shetty had asked for the legislation when he first proposed the project that became Health City Cayman Islands, but the law eventually emerged from a private member’s motion by then UDP backbencher, Ellio Solomon.

Although transplants have been performed in the Cayman Islands, the organs were donated overseas. The law paves the way for voluntary donation locally by consent of family members whose loved ones had agreed to donation before their death. People over 18 will be able to register as organ donors and children can donate with parental consent.

In yesterday’s Ask Auntie column, “Wants to register as an organ donor”, a Ministry of Health official explained that the ministry is now in the process of creating a Human Tissue Transplant Council, which will monitor “both the donation of tissue by living persons and the removal of tissue from deceased persons”. Cabinet is considering the appointments to the council and the relevant regulations, both of which will need to be settled before the law will be fully effective.

The council will be responsible for creating and maintaining a local donation register, which will include the recording of all donations. The law does not include ova, fetal tissue or sperm. It also makes it illegal to remove any tissue from anyone not able to give consent and prohibits trading human body parts.

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Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (21)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    This is great news. Thank you Elio Solomon for setting this in motion and to the current Legislature for passing into Law. Health City Cayman has, or soon will have, the expertise to perform organ transplants. This will alleviate the suffering of many Caymanians who live without kidney function or severe heart or liver disease and are unable to be on donor recipient lists in other countries or simply can’t afford the surgery.

    Next step is for locals to step up and become organ donors. Calling on medical facilities and the Red Cross to promote awareness for an organ donor registry!

    I’ll be first in line if mine are still in good nick!

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  2. Anonymous says:

    WHO estimates that Organ Trafficking accounts for >10% of global kidney transplants. How will our amateur council adjudicate the murky provenance and willing consent of “organ donations from overseas”, against the backdrop of rampant Central American Organ Trafficking and desperate illegal/immoral/predatory living patent harvests, non-consentual thefts, and murders? Like cash-for-gold and pawn shops, it seems Cayman is once again leaping to provide a liquidation venue for the most immoral regional criminal syndicates. We need to be really careful about the headline risk and any complacent involvement in this brutal and grisly regional black market. Cash from criminal harvests are also proceeds of crime.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    I feel it would work better if there were an opt out system rather than an opt in system. People are automatically assumed to be happy to be organ donors after their death unless they say otherwise. Knowing how people are kinda lazy, mean to do it but never get round to it, an opt in system for registration won’t result in much of a list.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Great news!

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  5. Anonymous says:

    How on earth can this be bad news? Thank you CIG.

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  6. Anon says:

    Are you sure that organ transplants have been performed in Cayman?
    If they have, it must be a very recent development indeed.

    • Jeanette Verhoeven says:

      Hello- I think life-saving organs donated after an accidental death can be transferred quickly enough to transplant centers of excellence. Implementing an organ harvesting system may help with healing after a loss of young life plus potentially save many other lives..

  7. anonymous says:

    I hope it does better than the bood bank where most locals only donate for family.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Maybe someone will donate some brains to the MLAs.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    What about pianos? I’ve got one that’s rarely been used.

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  10. Dr. H says:

    Yea,

    THANK YOU $$$$$ for making illegal organ traficking possible. Enough Caymanians and expats to place under the knife.

    Ha Ha He Ha Ha !

    Signed,
    Dr. Hanibal

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  11. Anonymous says:

    News flash, person robbed of kidney in central George Town. A new kind of daylight robbery comes to Cayman.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Organ donor preferences should be noted on the reverse of all driver’s licenses – esp. the wheelying 0/1/1A motorcycle licensees.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Where are we at on legalizing cannabis?

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    • Anonymous says:

      If not complete legalization, at LEAST decriminalize it. Jeez the whole northern American continent will be legal in about 10 years.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Considering the CIG has to fight off the ministers association and fundamentalist Christians every time they do anything remotely secular or non-traditional

      Probably scheduled for the legislative sitting on the 30th of February 2019

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  14. Anonymous says:

    You’ve got to be kidneying me!

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