People needing transplants are set to take precedence over other candidates on the waiting list starting tomorrow if their spouse or a three-degree relative is an organ or tissue donor, the Taiwan Organ Registry and Sharing Center said yesterday as it announced the implementation of the long-awaited policy expected to boost organ donations.
“The new policy’s implementation not only demonstrates that Taiwan is a patient-centered country where ethics and the law are both upheld, but also makes it the first nation in the world to give families of organ donors priority on transplant waiting lists,” center chairman Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) told a news conference in Taipei. “This marks a significant and substantial milestone in the country’s development of organ donations and transplants.”
Under the new regulations drawn up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, people are to be allowed to move higher on the transplant waiting list if any of their relatives within three degrees of kinship or their spouses have donated organs or tissues, providing that other registered candidates are not as ill.
According to the Civil Code, a person’s first-degree relative is a parent or child; second-degree is a grandparent, grandchild or sibling; and third-degree relatives are great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews, great-grandchildren and nieces.
Current regulations only allow the organs of a brain-dead person to be donated to their fifth-degree relatives by blood or marriage. If none of them require an organ transplant upon the person’s death, the organs are then given to other patients on the list. The donor’s relatives are not be given priority should they need a transplant in the future.
Lee said that as of noon yesterday, a total of 8,657 people nationwide were waiting for a new organ, of them 6,421 are in need of a kidney transplant.
“However, there are only slightly more than 200 organ donors in Taiwan per year on average, which makes the demand 40 to 175 times greater than the supply,” Lee said, adding that he hopes the new regulation could help promote the notion that “helping others is helping yourself.”
Wang Tsung-hsi (王宗曦), director of the ministry’s Department of Medical Affairs, said the new policy is retroactive, meaning that people who are able to present documents showing their relatives’ donation history would be moved to the top of the waiting list, regardless of how long ago the procedures occurred.
“More than 90 registered candidates are expected to receive priority once the new policy takes effect,” Wang said.
One of them is the eldest son of 77-year-old Chao Li-chuan (趙麗娟), who decided to donate her youngest son’s usable organs five years ago after he died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage.
“The Buddha has taught me to be compassionate and merciful. When my youngest son passed away, I thought of those patients who had died waiting for an organ and decided that it was best that my boy’s organs were given to others in need,” Chao said.
Three years later, Chao’s eldest son suffered kidney failure and has been on dialysis ever since while he awaits a transplant.
“I never thought that the decision I made years ago out of pure altruism would now give my eldest son a better chance of getting a new kidney,” Chao said. “The new policy is rather encouraging.”
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS