Legal revisions to allow the consent of organ donors to be recorded on their National Health Insurance IC Cards passed preliminary review Nov. 24 in the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan.
Amendments to the Organ Transplant Act would help facilitate the right of patients to donate organs, according to opposition Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying, who introduced the bill.
“These revisions would speed up the process for medical personnel and related agencies to determine the wishes of patients regarding organ donations, given that the carrier rate for the NHI card, a legitimate alternative for an identification card, is much higher than for organ donation consent cards,” Huang said.
The amended law would require that a person’s written consent to donate organs be recorded on the NHI card, which would have the same legal effect as the written document. Consent could be rescinded by written application and removed from the card. Moreover, in the course of medical treatment people would have the right to change their minds, thus overruling what is recorded on the NHI card.
The revisions would also require medical institutions to collaborate with central administrative agencies to establish offices responsible for organ donation, distribution and transplant, and provide for the establishment of a national organ bank if necessary.
To ensure safety in organ transplants, the amended law stipulates that hospitals in charge of removing organs must provide donors’ complete medical records and test results to their counterparts responsible for the transplants. (THN)
Write to Rachel Chan at rachelchan@mail.gio.gov.tw