Organ transplanting to resume in 2009

Transplanting organs will resume in 2009, as the Government Wednesday instituted the Transplant Agency, Info-Prim Neo reports. Health Minister Larisa Catrinici says the new Agency will pursue to enforce the national policies on transplanting organs, tissues, providing equal access to patients to those specialized services. The agency will be responsible for donating and transplanting organs, according to the recommendations of the Council of Europe, for cooperating with international institutions in the area, for organizing the transportation of organs domestically and abroad. The agency will also be entitled to issue authorizations to medical institutions providing such services. Catrinici says now the Moldovan citizens more and more often call for such services to institutions from abroad. At the same time, because there are no adequate conditions to provide such services, the illicit trafficking of organs is gaining momentum. This leads to many Moldovans becoming disabled and supported from the national budget. The Health Minister says the Moldovan transplanting school is good, but it has not developed lately because there has been no legal frame . According to the minister, if everything goes OK, at least 20 patients will be able to benefit from kidney transplants yearly, as the state budget will save 1 million lei after the first year of transplanting. If 50 kidney transplants are a operated the national budget will spare 2.5 million lei. Now the Health Ministry sends the patients needing transplants to Italy, Israel and other countries.