Proposed changes to the Human Organ Transplant Act

ST 12 March 2009, page A3

1. Lift the upper age limit of 60 years for cadaveric organ donation, and for people receiving such organs. Organs will be used so long as they are medically fit. The change is expected to help about 70 people a year.
(My comments: While I agree with the former, I am a little concern regarding the latter. Please do not get me wrong, I am not being an ageist here but with advanced age, what are the chances of the patient surviving such a major operation? Are we really placing the patient in undue risk just to bulk up our transplant numbers simply for stats sake?)

2. Allow for paired matching, in which two recipients swop donors for a better medical match.
(My comments: cannot really comment about this because I do not fully understand the implications)

3. Allow payment for living donors to ensure they "do not suffer financially as a result of their altruistic act". Payment is not mandated and the change "does not condone organ trading or legalise it".
(My comments: this is damn tricky and I spent many hours thinking about my position...have not come to a final conclusion but my current feel is "no" because it is hard to determine if the transaction is motivated by altruism or by finances. And besides, it throws the whole concept of altruism out of the window...imagine all the volunteers in Singapore starting to demand compensation (e.g. after helping an old lady across the street, you demand $XX for your time and loss earnings.)...damn tricky).

4. Increase by 10 times the penalties for organ trading for syndicates or middlemen. With the change, they face a fine of up to $100,000, a maxumum jail term of 10 years or both. This is because "both the buyer and seller are exploited by the middlemen, who creams off a significant portion of the transacted amount".
(My comment: sigh...willing buyer, willing seller - willing middlemen? caveat emptor is it?)