State Duma Adopts Amendments to the Bill on Organ, Tissue Transplants

MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) – Russia’s State Duma is poised to allow municipal health institutions to collect and store human organs and tissues.

Such amendments to the federal law “On Transplantation of Human Organs and/or Tissues” were adopted by deputies in the first reading.

Under the bill, both state and municipal health institutions will have such rights.

“Transplantation of human organs and tissues is a socially meaningful issue that is topical because of the almost complete halt of activity in the area of organ donorship in Russia,” according to the sponsors of the bill.

They link the absence of a legal basis with the fact that donor basis refuse to cooperate with transplantation centers. “At the same time, the number of sick people in need of organs amounts to approximately 5,000 annually,” the bill’s sponsors say.

The proposed amendments are “vital” and eliminate loopholes in legislation, because when the law was first adopted, there was no municipal health institutions. The current municipal health institutions were part of state system of health institutions.

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