Law needs to be amended to stop going for organ transplant abroad
BSMMU VC tells conference
FE REPORT | Thursday, 8 February 2024
The existing organ transplant law needs to be amended to prevent Bangladeshi patients' going abroad for organ transplant. The existing organ transplant law has some complexities that prevents voluntary organ donation and due to the legal complications, patients go out of the country to transplant various organs including kidneys.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Vice chancellor Prof Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed made the above observation at a conference on Wednesday. A kidney transplant costs Tk300,000 at BSMMU while it costs Tk3 million in neighboring countries.
Dr Md Sharfuddin said this at the inauguration of 51st annual conference of Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (OSB) which began at the BSMMU.
Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan was present as the chief guest at the event.
President of Bangladesh Medical Association Dr Mustafa Jalal Mohiuddin, Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology President Prof Ava Hossain, OSB Secretary General Prof Dipak Kumar Nag spoke, among others.
The Chief Justice called upon the OSB to establish one eye hospital in every divisional city of the country, and to perform at least one out of every 10 cataract operations free of cost.
The Chief Justice said, "No doctor wants a patient to die. If a doctor is detained for any reason due to an accident, other patients will be deprived of services and will suffer."
He urged judges to take a conscious look at the cases where a patient died due to negligence of doctors. The BSMMU VC demanded that doctors should not be arrested until a crime is proved.
"A committee may be constituted to prove the offence- where there will be representatives from administration, magistrates and specialist doctors. This committee will investigate whether the doctor is involved in the death of a patient or not," the BSMMU VC suggested. If doctors are arrested without investigation, the medical system will collapse, he opined.
President of OSB Prof AHM Enayet Hussain presided over the event.
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