Hanoi (VNA) – Lawmakers called for clearer organ allocation criteria, stronger protection of donors’ rights and tighter oversight while discussing amendments to the Law on Donation, Removal and Transplantation of Human Tissues and Organs and Donation and Retrieval of Cadavers at group meetings on October 21, part of the 16th National Assembly (NA)’s second session.
Tightening death determination
Deputy Tran Thi Nhi Ha from Hanoi stressed the need to clarify the legal status, responsibilities and supervisory mechanisms of the National Coordination Centre, given the urgency and precision required throughout the organ donation and transplantation process.
She called for clear statutory criteria for transplant priority, including medical urgency, compatibility, expected outcomes and waiting time, without discrimination based on economic circumstances, ethnicity, religion, gender or residence.
Preferential policies for relatives of donors or patients at facilities that identify and maintain potential donors should serve only as supplementary criteria when medical factors are equivalent, she said. Their weighting should be transparent and subject to regular reporting and inspection to prevent unhealthy competition among healthcare facilities.
Ha also proposed that the disclosure of information about donors and recipients be allowed only with the voluntary, written consent of all parties, following adequate counselling and through authorised channels. Confidentiality must remain the default to prevent organ trafficking, coercion and privacy violations.
To improve the identification of potential donors, she proposed requiring hospitals with intensive care, emergency, stroke or neurosurgery departments to detect and report potential donors and liaise with the centre.
Death determination must be conducted by an independent professional council whose members are not involved in donation advocacy or the retrieval and transplantation procedures involving the same donor, she stressed.
Deputy Pham Kieu Anh Tho from Can Tho city supported recognising donation after circulatory death and called for strict requirements for death determination councils, including relevant specialists, paediatric expertise for child donors, specialised training and independence from retrieval and transplantation teams.
Respecting donors’ wishes
Deputy Hoang Van Nghia from Quang Ngai province welcomed simplified donation registration through the VNeID application and the recognition of citizens’ right to change their decisions.
However, he warned that requiring written family consent when an unregistered individual expresses a wish to donate before death could allow relatives to override that wish. He proposed respecting verified individual wishes, with families helping confirm and implement them rather than exercising a veto.
On commercialisation, Nghia called for service-cost ceilings, transparent charges and tighter oversight of tissue and cell origins, warning that commercial activities involving cell production and the storage of sperm, eggs and embryos could blur the line between medical services and the commercialisation of human-derived products.
For prisoners wishing to donate tissues or organs, he proposed independent judicial or procuratorial supervision to verify voluntariness, and state support for medical expenses and post-donation recovery. He also urged safeguards against employers and private insurers accessing or demanding personal donation and transplantation data.
NA Vice Chairman Nguyen Khac Dinh highlighted potential conflicts between the draft law and the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments, which allows prisoners to donate organs only to relatives and requires them to cover donation and post-donation healthcare costs.
He called for an explicit reference to Article 53 of the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments or amendments to the relevant provisions to avoid legal inconsistencies. He also urged clearer definitions of prohibited acts and transitional provisions to ensure transparent implementation when organ allocation priorities change./.