Minister of Health Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament that amending the Human Organ Transplant Act to also scrap the age limit on kidney donors will help increase the number of kidney transplants done in the country and save more lives.
According to Khaw, charity and religious organizations should be allowed to compensate kidney donors and their families in cash or in kind after the transplant operation as a way of acknowledging the donor's benevolent act. He said there were cases of payment offers to donors but this may be misinterpreted as organ trading and in violation of the law.
Singapore has 1,000 kidney failure cases every year but only half of patients receive replacement organs from donors.
The proposed amendment will raised the rate of organ transplantation to 70 percent, Khaw said, according to Channel News Asia.
