Proposal to expand the age limit for brain-dead people to donate tissues and body parts

According to a representative of the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation (Ministry of Health), Vietnam performed its first organ transplant in June 1992. On February 11, 2010, the first organ transplant from a brain-dead donor was performed at Cho Ray Hospital.

As of early October 2023, after 31 years of organ transplantation and 13 years of organ retrieval from brain-dead donors, the country has performed nearly 8,000 organ transplants, but of these, only 466 and 7 organ transplants from heart-dead donors, equivalent to 5.92% of the number of transplants performed.

According to the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation, research shows that in most countries with the highest rate of brain-dead organ donors per 1 million people in the world, 50% of the donations come from young people (under 18 years old) and the elderly (60 years old and above). In these countries, there is no age limit for people after death, and some countries like South Korea even set a lower age limit, starting from 16 years old instead of 18 years old like Vietnam today...

In the 2006 Law on Donation, Collection, Transplantation of Human Tissues and Organs and Donation of Corpses of Vietnam, there is only a provision on brain death as "a state where the entire brain is severely damaged, the brain function has stopped working and the brain-dead person cannot be revived", but there is no provision on cardiac arrest. The Law also stipulates the age of organ retrieval in living donors at the lower limit (it is strictly forbidden to take human tissues and organs from living people under 18 years old) and stipulates the right to donate tissues, organs and corpses "people from 18 years old and above, with full civil capacity, have the right to donate their tissues and organs while alive, after death and donate corpses" but there are no specific provisions on the upper and lower limits of the age of organ and tissue donation in people after death.

According to experts, this is a practical limitation that has caused many problems when implementing the movement to retrieve organs from people after death, especially brain-dead people under 18 years old.

Therefore, many experts suggest that there should be regulations to adjust and expand the age range for brain-dead people to donate tissues and body parts.

According to Mr. Do Trung Hung, Director of the Legal Department (Ministry of Health), the current Law on Donation, Human Tissue and Organ Transplantation and Corpse Donation has some shortcomings that need to be amended. The biggest goal of the amendment is to increase the source of organ donations.

The first solution is to build a database system, creating a connection between people waiting for organ donation and potential donors.

“Currently, our system only has information about people waiting to donate, but not about potential people (who donate organs after death or are brain dead). Therefore, it is necessary to complete a database that is synchronized with all hospitals,” the Director of the Legal Department proposed.

The Director of the Legal Department suggested that as soon as a patient is brain dead, by comparing the information on the organ donation registration integrated on the citizen identification card, the donor's organs can be quickly retrieved to save the lives of patients on the waiting list.

In addition, the Director of the Legal Department also proposed additional policies for families of organ donors, such as free health insurance, to encourage and motivate families of organ donors.

At the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Hoang Phuc, Deputy Director of the National Coordination Center for Human Organ Transplantation, said that many countries in the world now have a national organ donation day, with many activities to honor and commemorate organ and tissue donors, such as India on August 3; South Korea on September 9; China on June 11, etc.

"Therefore, I think that Vietnam should also have a Vietnamese Organ Donation Day. Accordingly, the center proposes that July 1 be the day the Law on Donation, Collection, and Transplantation of Human Tissues and Organs and Donation and Collection of Corpses takes effect (July 1, 2007)," Dr. Nguyen Hoang Phuc proposed.