The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

REGULATIONS to ensure the best possible practices in organ transplantation and donation exist in the Bahamas must be addressed, according to Michaela Sumner-Budhi, a legal counsel at Doctors Hospital.

She spoke along with Dr Adrian Sawyer, transplant nephrologist, during the recently held Doctors Hospital Distinguished Lecture Series, which focused on Organ Donation: Giving the Gift of Life.

Organ donation involves the process of taking healthy organs or tissues from a living or deceased person (donor) to a person in dire need of transplantation (recipient).

Many people around the world undergo the life saving procedure of an organ transplantation. Organs that can be donated or transplanted include, the liver, the heart, the pancreas and the lungs.

According to Dr Sawyer there is large gap between patients who need organs and those who supply them.

Organ donation is highly regulated in other parts of the world. However in the Bahamas there are no regulations as it relates to organ donation or transplantation.

“The reasons for regulating organ donation and transplantation are many. We want to prohibit commercial dealing with human organs. We do not want people buying and selling organs. We also want to ensure the fairness and the distribution of the organs so that it is not only the rich and the elite who gets the organs but the person that needs it the most,” she said.

“We do not have any regulations as it relates to organ donation and transplantation. We are starting with a completely blank canvas. So it is up to us to decide what we are going to do and put into practice and into law the best possible practices that are medical, ethical and legal to regulate organ transplantation and donation.”

Ms Sumner-Budhi said in making this determination the kind of system that the country will have must be established first.

“Do we want an opt in system meaning, you must specifically state that you want to be an organ donor or would we prefer to be an opt out system - everyone is presumed to be an organ donor. This will yield a greater number of organs, unless you are absolutely certain you do not wish to donate an organ. How likely is it that most of us would say definitively I am going to opt out of this.

“Would we prefer to state specifically that we want to donate organs rather than assume that we will give up our organs upon our death. Most European countries largely have an opt out system. Everyone is presumed to be an organ donor unless you opt out. However in some countries in Europe, though they may have an opt out system the relatives can veto a donation and that is something we might consider. Everyone is presumed to be unless the relatives says no,” she said.

Currently in the Bahamas family members are approached about considering the donation of organs from relatives.

“Those are the questions we need to ask ourselves. We need to legislate and we need to regulate what happens here. We have been using best practice to do what we do here in the Bahamas. But we need legislation in this country. We need to have a talk about what kind of legislation we want to have. How do we want our organ programme to work? Will we be an opt in and will we be an opt out. What would be the best thing for the Bahamas?” she said.

Although the Bahamas does not have a organ procurement or transplant team (the people who make a transplant successful), Doctors Hospital has an agreement in effect with Life Alliance, the University of Miami’s organ procurement team.

“When we are aware that we have an organ donor, and usually the deceased donors have been tourist that come in the country had an unfortunate incident, ended up in the hospital here. Their loved ones have either told us they were organ donors or they had an organ donor card. Once we become aware that we have a potential organ donor, we contact the University of Miami Life Alliance. We have a coordinator on staff and they are made aware of the fact that there is a potential organ donor. Life Alliance flies their procurement team to the Bahamas and they then procure the organs and take it with them. Those organs will be given to the person on the waiting list in the United States whomever is a match,” she said.