Organ Donor Transplant Bill to be ready early May 2021 – AG Chambers

Jan 21, 2021 News

AG Anil Nandlall S.C. at the meeting with members of the Guyana Medical Council and Dr. Kishore Persaud and his team.

Kaieteur News – Attorney General (AG), Anil Nandlall S.C., has met with members of the Guyana Medical Council and Dr. Kishore Persaud, the Head of Department, Multi-Organ Transplant and Vascular Access Surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), and his team as part of efforts to introduce legislation to facilitate organ donations for cadaveric or brain dead patients.
According a release from the Chambers of the Attorney General, the Organ Transplant Bill will be ready for the National Assembly as early as May.
As such, the meeting with the AG is the first of many to follow by the Government of Guyana in its pursuit of enacting the legislation.
Guyana’s legislation on organ transplant, particularly from cadaveric or brain dead patients, has been in draft format for close to a decade, with no serious steps taken towards implementation.
Dr. Persaud has been among the group of local medical professionals lobbying for implementation of the legislation, given the benefits, which it can have on the increasing number of patients in need of urgent transplant surgeries.
The doctor who deals especially with renal failure patients had noted that there are hundreds of persons who are on dialysis, and desperately in need of transplants. He has so far partnered with the European-based Donation and Transplant Institute to start streamlining the implementation of organ donor and transplant legislation here.
In the release yesterday, the AG Chambers noted that Guyana is currently bereft of legislation governing, authorising and regulating the donation of tissue and organs to persons who meet the criteria of either being a donor or recipient of such donation.
In addition, the statement noted that in order to protect the citizens of Guyana from being victims of trafficking in human organs and tissue, the legislation will also propose to address the prohibition of trade in human tissue, organs and blood and as a result will create offences and penalties to monitor such dire incidents.
According to the statement, a consultative approach has been agreed upon which will include consultative engagements involving all stakeholders and associations and their collective input will be channelled into the legislation and ensuing regulations.
The release said too that a process was outlined to execute the agenda of the Bill with the AG indicating that the Bill shall be ready for Parliament on or before May 2021.