REVIEW PROPOSAL ON MANDATORY ORGAN DONATION

LAST month, I watched on TV how Congress is preparing legislation that will make it compulsory for everyone to donate their organs for medical availability to patients who may need organ transplant as part of their treatment.

I had to listen twice just to confirm that I heard the right news, which I thought could only be possible in a bad dream. But there it was, the law was being discussed by lawmakers to mandate people to donate their organs. Should the law be enacted, the whole medical community would be up in arms.

Will the organs be for sale? Commercial trading is unethical and strictly forbidden. Who would think of such a macabre idea, unless there are ghouls in Congress?

A person has absolute autonomy in deciding what is to be done with his body. Even in times of illness, when there is need to remove an organ to cure the disease or prolong the life of the patient, no physician may even touch, much more operate on the patient’s body, without the patient’s expressed consent. To do so is malpractice, or a disregard of the ethical right of the patient and violation of the Code of Ethics of the medical profession.

Section 24 of the Medical Act of 1959, the law that governs the study and practice of medicine in the Philippines, provides penalties for such violations.

Who should do the harvesting of the organs? No doctor can be forced to do so. I am not aware that senators and congressmen can do so. I do hope explicit copies of the proposed bill of the Organ Donation Law may be made available to the Philippine Medical Association so I can be more correct in my stirredup opinion.

SANTIAGO A. DEL ROSARIO JR., chair, committee on ethics, Philippine Medical Association