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SINGAPORE: Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has said his ministry will review the living donor transplant programme to see if there are any lapses, after a current case of organ trading wraps up in court.
He is confident that the episode will not dent Singapore's reputation as a medical hub.
In the first case of its kind, two men - both Indonesians - have been convicted of organ trading.
One of them had his kidney transplanted into an Indonesian woman, Juliana Soh, at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
The other had planned to sell his kidney to 55-year-old Tang Wee Sung, the executive chairman of retail company C K Tang. But the operation never took place, following intervention by the authorities hours after the Mount Elizabeth Hospital ethics committee gave the go-ahead.
The doctor who handled both cases was Dr Lye Wai Choong, the president of the Society of Transplantation (Singapore). He has a clinic at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre.
Digging for more information will help shed light on the current kidneys-for-sale case, said Minister Khaw at a community event in Sembawang on Saturday.
Until the facts are clearer, Mr Khaw said, there should not be any speculation on whether the Transplant Ethics Committee involved in the case is negligent.
"Let's find out first how they reach their conclusion, how they do their job," he said.
The minister noted that the donors in both cases had lied about being related to the patients and also about not being paid for their organs.
"They were misrepresenting, so a lot depends on the interview (when the donors appeared before the Transplant Ethics Committee)...," Mr Khaw said, adding that sometimes it may not be easy to detect the misrepresentation.
"But, if they (committee members) were doing their job too casually, to allow even a clear-cut misrepresentation to pass through, then I'll be very disappointed.
"We also have to review, from the minutes of the meeting (interview), what actually happened in this case and whether there were lapses. If there were, we hope that the hospital ethics committee will learn from this, so that there will be no repeat of such lapses."
Mr Khaw said that the law is "crystal clear" about the buying and selling of organs. But he acknowledged that although laws are in place, there will always be those who will break them.
"How you enforce the law makes a difference... if we do it robustly, it enhances our reputation rather than weakens it," the minister added.
Mr Khaw also acknowledged that organ trading is a global phenomenon but said that except for Iran, most countries have largely banned the illegal trade. - CNA/ir
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