Parliament Approves Government’s Proposed Penalty On people Who sell Human Organs.

Parliament has approved government’s proposed penalty of life imprisonment for any person who sells or gets involved in any form of compensation for human organs, tissues, or cells.

This is part of the Uganda Human Organ Donation and Transplant Bill, 2021 that the House passed on Thursday.

It applies to the donation and trans-plantation of human organs, tissues, and cells including kidneys, heart, blood, lungs, liver, pancreas, intestines, thy-mus, bone marrow, bones, tendon, ligaments, cells, skim, amni-otic membrane, penile, uterus, and others.

Currently, Uganda does not have any law governing human organ donation and transplantation, which, according to the Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said is increasingly becoming an area of health care used to cure non-communicable diseases that are rising rapidly. She also states concern about the increase in the illicit trade in and trafficking of human organs, cells, and tissue..