Gov't finalizes law that intensifies penalties for organ trade

CAIRO – 10 May 2017: Egypt’s Minister of Health, Ahmed Emad, will submit the final version of a law that imposes harsher penalties on organ trade to the parliament by the end of this month, he said on Wednesday.

Emad added that donating the organs of recently deceased people has required a lot of work as it entailed changing the culture that opposes this issue.

“Organ trade is an unacceptable thing and religiously forbidden, yet it is not subjected to criminal punishment,” member of the Parliament’s Health Affairs Committee Abdalla Ali told Egypt today.

He added that donating organs should only be allowed for the first and second degree relatives of the donor.

Hundreds of poor Egyptians sell kidneys and livers each year in order to get money to buy their needs or pay their debts.

In 2016, Egyptian authorities arrested 12 doctors and eight nurses suspected of being involved in an international organ trafficking ring, and the police confiscated millions of pounds in cash.