ORGAN DONATION PROCEDURE IN NIGERIA: REVIEWING THE PROVISIONS OF NATIONAL HEALTH ACT 2014 AND ITS CHALLENGES

Abstract

World health organization has provided a policy to regulate any commercial dealing in human organ. The policy provided for restriction for removal and retrieval of human organs and also regulations for hospitals involved to ensure transparency by all concerned. Laws and policies governing the use of organs for transplantation are evolving rapidly in response to sensitivity to ethical concerns and increasing shortages of transplantable organs. They are necessarily becoming increasingly detailed and complex. Professional practice will be enhanced by strict compliance with rules and regulation regarding its practice. Sequel to that, different countries come up with a legal framework in that respect. Nigeria as country has in 2014 passed the National Health Act into law. Although the Act recognized the need for consent before removal of any human organ from both the dead and the living, the need for such consent is not required in extreme emergency cases. This paper looked at the implication of the law on medical practice and the rights of the donor to consent. Where the donation is required from a living individual, his consent will be required, but for the non living, it is an issue that also requires consent from the family even though some jurisdiction recognize a presumed consent especially in extreme case of emergency.