The private medical-sanitary institutions, as the public ones, will be able to collect human cells, not yet organs. The institutions will have to get an authorization from the Ministry of Health. A bill to this effect was passed by Parliament in the first reading, IPN reports.

Deputy Minister of Health Mihai Ciocan said the law on the transplantation of tissue needs to be amended as it was formulated five years ago and the medicine made progress in the period, especially in the area of stem cell transplantation.

The bill provides that stem cells, skin, sperm, placenta and blood from the umbilical cord will be collected from living donors without the independent commission’s approval. The commission will monitor, supervise and control the correctness and legality of the donation procedures. There will be instituted a single codification system that will provide information about the main characteristics and properties of the collected organs, tissues and cells.

The bill wasn’t supported by the Communist and Liberal parliamentary groups. Liberal lawmaker Valeriu Munteanu said that if the private institutions are allowed to collect human cells, the number of cases of human trafficking will increase. Communist MP Artur Reshetnikov stated that this bill promotes the interests of particular persons who want to obtain benefits.