19/11/2012 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
[19/11/2012] In connection with a report by Bernard Marquet (Monaco, ALDE), the PACE Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development has considered the preliminary draft Council of Europe Convention against trafficking in organs in order to propose a number of additional provisions, as well as the preparation of a roadmap for an Additional Protocol on trafficking in human tissues and cells.
The committee recommends introducing “mitigating circumstances” in order to take account of the organ donor’s and/or recipient’s vulnerability, prohibiting the removal and use for the purposes of transplantation of organs from persons deprived of their liberty (whether living or dead) and providing special protection for children and persons without full legal capacity.
The rapporteur stressed the need to set out preventive measures for coping with organ shortages, preferably by means of a system of presumed consent for removing organs from deceased persons.
The committee also invited those countries which have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine and the Additional Protocol on transplantation of organs and tissues of human origin, as well as the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.