‘It’s illegal for doctors to act as middlemen’

PUTRAJAYA: Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam yesterday did not deny that Malaysian doctors have acted as middlemen to arrange for organ transplants for patients abroad.

He said this was illegal and did not have any support of the ministry.

“We will advise them to stop doing this as complications can arise.”

Every country, he said, had regulations on organ transplants.

“This is because countries want to protect their citizens so that they are not exploited by unscrupulous parties, especially those in the organ sales racket.

“Those who are doing it should stop. As far as our legal system goes, we (Malaysia) don’t support that.”

It is learned that this activity has been going on for some time through unregulated means, which is against the Human Tissues Act 1974.

It is learned that the surgeries are mainly conducted in countries such as China and India.

Dr Subramaniam said most of the organ transplants conducted in Malaysia involved living organ donors.

“We want to increase the number of cadaver donors so that we can harvest their organs.”

Unfortunately, he said, hospitals were not getting enough organs.

“This is something we are trying to improve.”

On the issue of organ donors’ families preventing the harvesting of donors’ organs upon their death, he said the ministry would honour the families’ wishes.

“But, we are studying a mechanism to strengthen our system to overcome this problem.”