April 20, 2009 - 20:26 AMT
Armenia makes significant progress organ transplantation sphere
On March 19, the RA National Assembly introduced amendments to the law on "Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues". According to Ara Babloyan, Chairman of Standing Parliamentary Committee for Health Issues, the amendments will contribute to the development of transplantation medicine in Armenia.

Under the amended law, the future transplants will be extracted either from the dead bodies of individuals who, while alive, gave consent for their organs to be used transplants after their death and those who didn't disagree to it. The latter method is applied in most European states.

"The transplantation of organs should not purse commercial goals; the expenses for the delivery of the transplant are in no way related to the organ itself."

Donor organs and tissues are in high demand in Armenia, and any person is a potential donor, provided he hasn't given an official notice expressing his/her disagreement to use his organs as transplants after his/her death. As noted by Mr. Babloyan, the organs in highest demand are kidneys, heart and liver come next.

Kidney transplantation has been the only form of transplantation carried out in Armenia so far. However, the amended law on "Transplantation of Organs and Tissues" will enable Armenian physicians to perform pancreas and lungs transplantations as well.