House of Representatives of FBiH Unanimously Adopts Amendments to the Transplant Law, House of Peoples to Convene at 6 PM

(Patria) - The House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH today, at an emergency session in Sarajevo, adopted the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Organ and Tissue Transplantation for the purpose of treatment.

The law will be adopted if the House of Peoples, which will convene at 6:00 PM, also supports it.

The proposed law envisages the addition of a new paragraph specifying that the procurement of organs or tissues from a living donor can be carried out from an unrelated living donor exclusively if there is no possibility of donation in case of kinship, marital or cohabiting partnership, and affinity by marriage, and under the conditions prescribed by this law.

Namely, the Government of the Federation of BiH yesterday, at an emergency session, upon the proposal of the Federal Ministry of Health, determined the aforementioned bill and sent it to an urgent parliamentary procedure for adoption.

The proposal supplements the Law with a paragraph stating that, in the case of organ or tissue procurement from an unrelated living donor, proof of kinship, affinity by marriage, marital or cohabiting relationship between the donor and the recipient is not required.

These amendments to the law are very important, among other things, due to the case of Adnan Šemić from Mostar, who suffers from a rare disease, Wilson's disease, and the only hope for survival is a liver transplant.

No one in Adnan's family can currently donate a part of their liver, but a man from Loznica, Željko Mijailović, who heard the story, has come forward and wants to help.

However, neither the current law in Turkey, whose specialists would perform the surgery, nor the law in FBiH allows transplantation from individuals who are not related. Turkish doctors have even agreed to perform the surgery in BiH once the legal prerequisites are met.