Vietnam’s draft organ transplant law tightens restrictions on foreign recipients

The ministry said on Monday that it had revised several provisions of a draft amendment to the law on organ and tissue donation and transplantation following discussions and feedback.

Under the latest draft, foreigners would be eligible for organ transplants in Vietnam only if they are directly related by blood to the donor or are relatives within three generations.

The ministry said it had dropped the proposed provision allowing foreigners to join transplant waiting lists over concerns that it could be exploited for organ trafficking.

Under the current 2006 law, foreigners and overseas Vietnamese may receive organs from Vietnamese donors if they meet these family relationship requirements or if the donor has voluntarily agreed to donate without naming a specific recipient.

However, the law does not explicitly allow foreigners without family ties to Vietnamese donors to register for organs from donors who have been declared brain-dead or have died following circulatory arrest.

The law also permits Vietnamese citizens to travel abroad to donate organs only to direct blood relatives or relatives within three generations.

The revised draft also sets out priority criteria for organ allocation, giving preference to children and patients requiring emergency transplants.

Priority would also be given to previous organ donors who subsequently need transplants and patients awaiting transplants at hospitals that identified and encouraged organ donation and maintained potential donors' physiological functions.

Where patients have equal priority, preference would go to the parents, spouses, children, or siblings of deceased organ donors.

Organ allocation must also ensure biological compatibility between donors and recipients and fairness among patients.

To prevent coercion, the draft requires advisory councils overseeing living organ donations and transplants to have at least five members, including medical, legal, and psychological experts.

It also requires brain death or circulatory death to be confirmed unanimously by a council of appropriately qualified medical specialists.