Vietnam ministry proposes stricter age rules for living organ donors

The proposal is included in a draft amended Law on Donation, Removal and Transplantation of Human Tissues, Organs and Cadavers, which the ministry is currently seeking public feedback on.

Under Vietnam’s 2006 law, people aged 18 or older who have full civil legal capacity are entitled to donate tissues or organs while alive, after death, or donate their bodies for medical purposes.

The existing law does not distinguish between donations to family members and those to people outside the family.

The ministry said a review of the law’s implementation had revealed several shortcomings.

People aged 18 may still be undergoing physical and cognitive development and may not yet have stable employment or income.

The ministry also cited evidence that brain regions involved in judgment and decision-making continue developing into the mid-20s.

It said kidneys reach maximum function between the ages of 20 and 30 and begin to decline after 40.

According to the ministry, people who donate a kidney between the ages of 18 and 25 face a significantly higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease over the following two to three decades.

Medical units have also recommended against kidney donation before the age of 25 except in cases involving donation to a blood relative.

The ministry pointed to international practices as another basis for the proposed age threshold.

Some transplant centers in the United States apply a minimum age of 25 to people donating organs to strangers or recipients who are not blood relatives.

Living-donor transplants currently account for about 94 percent of all organ transplants in Vietnam, according to the ministry.

The high proportion poses potential risks of organ trafficking and coercion.

Therefore, the draft law proposes separate age requirements for living organ donors.

A person donating an organ to a family member would have to be at least 18 years old, while someone donating to a non-family member would have to be at least 25.

Proposal to allow organ donation by minors after death

The ministry is also proposing the expansion of the circumstances under which organs may be donated after death by adding donation following circulatory death.

Under the current law, organ donation after death is permitted only in cases of brain death.

The draft would also allow people under 18 to donate organs after death in certain circumstances.

For people aged 18 or older, organ donation following brain death or circulatory death would require prior registration as an organ donor.

For those who had not registered, their wishes expressed before death could still be recognized if they had communicated them verbally to a parent or legal guardian or expressed them in writing, provided the parent or guardian agreed.

The parent or guardian would bear legal responsibility for confirming the donor’s wishes.

For donors under 18, the draft similarly requires that the child’s wishes regarding organ donation have been expressed before death, either verbally to a parent or legal guardian or in writing, and that the parent or guardian give consent.