Emisco3310:
When present Goodluck Jonathan
signed the National Health Bill into
law early this month, for the birth of
the National Health Act (NHA) 2014,
many Nigerians applauded. For those
who praised the president and the
National Assembly for making the Act
possible, the coming of the law would
address the country’s healthcare
challenges.
However, controversy may dot the
path of the Act over certain
provisions. Indeed, such provisions,
which gave medical practitioners or
doctors the right to authorise the
removal of the organ of people for
transplant to other persons, in cases
of emergency, is raising some flakes.
Yes, although the Act provides that for
an organ to be taken from one person
for transplant to another, the former
would have to give consent, it also
provides that during emergency, the
doctor has the sole right to decide
that an organ should be taken from
anybody in the hospital.
Section 48 of the Act provides: “(1)
Subject to the provision of section 53,
a person shall not remove tissue,
blood or blood product from the body
of another living person for any
purpose except; (a) with the informed
consent of the person from whom the
tissue, blood or blood product is
removed granted in prescribed
manner; (b) that the consent clause
may be waived for medical
investigations and treatment in
emergency cases; and (c) in
accordance with prescribed protocols
by the appropriate authority.”
Also, Section 51 of the NHA, states:
(1) A person shall not remove tissue
from a living person for
transplantation in another living
person or carry out the
transplantation of such tissue
except:- (a) in a hospital authorised
for that purpose; and (b) on the
written authority of: (i) the medical
practitioner in charge of clinical
services in that hospital or any other
medical practitioner authorised by
him or her; or (ii) in the case where
there is no medical practitioner in
charge of the clinical services at that
hospital, a medical practitioner
authorised thereto by the person in
charge of the hospital.”
In the Act, “emergency situation” was
not defined, which means that it’s
only the doctor, who could decide
that there’s emergency and therefore
authorise the removal of anybody’s
organ, without the person’s consent.
Raising issues on this, Chairman,
Global Prolife Alliance (GPA), Prof.
Philip Njemanze, condemned the Act,
describing it as a way to kill
Nigerians.
He stated that Nigerian population
would be reduced through secret
trading on human organs by
international financial giants to save
the lives of their citizens, while
warning that human organs, such as
the heart, liver, kidney, lens, cornea,
ovarian eggs, sperms and so on,
would be secretly transplanted in
designated hospitals.
His worry for Nigerians is that some
certain medical practitioners at the
designated hospitals had been
empowered by the law to remove
these vital organs of sick Nigerians
who are on admission. This is so
because, the law made provision for
the right of consent from the patients,
it also waives such right from the
patient, in times of some certain
medical emergency conditions,
“conditions which the law did not
categorically spell out.”
No matter the medical condition,
Njemanze described the section as
an aberration and a crime against
Nigerians’ right to life.
The professor alleged that there were
international interferences while the
bill was being drafted, even as he
accused some wealthy foreign
individuals of influencing the NHA for
their clandestine personal gains.
On the standard of hospital provided
for by the Act, he said no Nigerian,
including the Federal Government,
can meet with the requirement to
build the special hospitals mentioned
in the Act.
Njemanze, who is a specialist in
Neurocybernetics, frowned at section
51 of the NHA, which state: (1) A
person shall not remove tissue from a
living person for transplantation in
another living person or carry out the
transplantation of such tissue
except:- (a) in a hospital authorised
for that purpose; and (b) on the
written authority of: (i) the medical
practitioner in charge of clinical
services in that hospital or any other
medical practitioner authorised by
him or her; or (ii) in the case where
there is no medical practitioner in
charge of the clinical services at that
hospital, a medical practitioner
authorised thereto by the person in
charge of the hospital.
He said: “Section 51 does not
mention any donor, which means the
person who owns the organ. Only the
medical doctor or manager of the
hospital has the right to authorise
that an organ (heart, liver, kidney,
lens, cornea, ovarian eggs, sperms
etc) can be taken from a living
Nigerian called a donor, for
transplantation into another living
person who receives the organ called
a recipient.
“For example, if a hospital in Nigeria
receives an American patient who
has paid one million US dollars for a
heart to the American hospital in
Nigeria and you visit the hospital in
an emergency, and your tissue
matches that of the American patient,
the medical director of that hospital
can order that your heart be taken
and given to the recipient under the
provisions of Section 51 of the
National Health Act 2014. You lose
your life and the American organ
tourist lives.
“Therefore, Section 51 is inconsistent
with the Right to Life of the
Fundamental Rights under the 1999
Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria.”
Njemanze pointed out that Section 48
(b) waives the right to consent in
emergency. According to him, it is
forbidden in medical practice to
waive the right of consent under any
circumstances for living or even dead
persons.
He explained further that even when a
living patient is unconscious or
unable to make decisions, that right
of consent is temporarily transferred
to his next-of-kin, guardian or
parents in the case of a child, but is
never waived.
The professor lamented that for the
first time in the history of humanity
and medicine, the right to consent to
your own organ has been taken away
in Nigeria through a law.
He said: “Note that Section 48 (3)
forbids selling and buying of organs.
This provision is deceptive, because
to pay money to the person whose
organ was collected is illegal, but for
the hospital to sell the organ to
another person may not be in the
scope of this law in Nigeria because
the commercial transaction could
take place on the internet, hence not
under any territorial jurisdiction.
“In order to make sure that organs are
collected from millions of Nigerians,
who will die in organ poaching, the
law in Section 20, declares
Emergency Services free. Section 20
(1) says: “A health care provider,
health worker or health establishment
shall not refuse a person emergency
medical treatment for any reason
whatsoever.”
He stated that the Act may be
misapplied by unscrupulous doctors
as “all medical conditions could be
considered an emergency under this
law because there is no definition of
what is an emergency. This would
mean that the hospitals will admit
many people in a purported
emergency and under that clause the
medical director decides, under
Sections 48 and 51, that the organ of
that patient be taken for
transplantation to another living
person, who is the ‘organ
transplantation tourist,’ who paid
hundreds of thousands of US dollars
to receive the heart of a Nigerian who
was admitted for stomach upset or
any other minor condition. He would
be operated unnecessarily to poach
his heart and other organs.
“Since there will be no Nigerian
owned hospitals, even if you ask for a
post-mortem, their doctors will
arrange the report to suit them. As a
result, Nigerians will die in millions
over time and the foreign recipients
would go home with new organs.
Note that since they own all the
hospitals, they also control the
‘health research,’ so statistical
figures of improved healthcare could
be well arranged, and no questions
asked.”
He stated that rich foreigners may
likely come to Nigerian to build the
specified standard of hospital so that
they would capitalise on the provision
waiving patients’ consent to removal
of the organ and therefore, do
indiscriminate transplants, at the
expense of Nigerians.
“The question arises, where would
this be done? Is it in Nigerian-owned
hospitals? Certainly not! The Nigerian
hospitals, private, public, mission and
Islamic would be closed down 24
months from now, according to
Section 13. The foreign organ
trafficking cartel intends to build over
260 so-called modern hospitals in
Nigeria. A meeting was called by a
major partner of the Bill Gates
Foundation in this project to seek
collaboration with the Association of
General and Private Medical
Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), at
their Abuja headquarters in Nigeria,
but no agreement was reached on
any partnerships.
“The hospitals will be built according
to the International Building Code of
hospitals. The Certificate of
Standards for hospital buildings is
based on the International Building
Code of hospitals, which has
stringent standards that no hospital
in Nigeria meets. The plumbing is
with conduit, all wiring with conduit,
high floor to roof height, wide window
width, 24-hour lighting, 24-hour air
conditioning, 24-hour water, specific
humidity, airflow purification etc.
These standards could be met in very
advanced countries, but are not easy
to comply with under our own
conditions.
“The law requires compliance in
Section 13, which states: “(1)
Without being in possession of a
Certificate of Standards, a person,
entity, government or organisation
shall not:- (a) establish, construct,
modify or acquire a health
establishment, health agency or
health technology; (b) increase the
number of beds in, or acquire
prescribed health technology at a
health establishment or health
agency; (c) Provide prescribed health
services; or (d) Continue to operate a
health establishment, health agency
or health technology after the
expiration of 24 months from the date
this Bill took effect,” he said.
On the contrary, Vice President,
Commonwealth Medical Association,
West Africa region, Dr. Osahon
Enabulele, applauded President
Jonathan for keeping faith with his
promise to assent to the Bill. He said
he received with a sense of fulfillment
the news of the assent to the NHB by
the President.
“I therefore, applaud President
Jonathan for keeping faith with his
promise to assent to the NHB. I also
commend both houses of Nigeria’s
Seventh National Assembly for their
legislative passage of the harmonised
version of the NHB.
“Despite the alleged insertions of
certain provisions that were not in
either versions passed by the
respective legislative houses of the
Seventh National Assembly, I wish to
thank all Nigerians, particularly
ordinary Nigerians, professional
associations, such as the NMA, civil
society organisations, the media and
other Nigerians, who courageously
undertook the tortuous journey
towards the long-awaited assent to
the Bill, whose provisions seek to
substantially address Nigeria’s
health challenges,” he said.
Enabulele, who was the former
President of Nigerian Medical
Association, said provision of a
minimum package of basic
healthcare services, including the
provision of free medical care for
children under age five, pregnant
mothers, the elderly and people with
disabilities are good.
www.2gedatalk./2015/01/15/doctors-empowered-to-remove-patients-organs-without-his-consent/