Appendix 3Recommendations from Compassion, Not Commerce: An inquiry into Human Organ Trafficking or Organ Transplant Tourism
Organ trafficking and organ transplant tourism in the global context
Recommendation 1
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government pursue through the United Nations the establishment of a Commission of inquiry to thoroughly investigate organ trafficking in countries where it is alleged to occur on a large scale.
Recommendation 2
Given the contention and ongoing debate around transplant practices in China, the Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government:
monitor the transplantation practices of other countries with regard to consistency with human rights obligations, including with regard to the use of the organs of executed prisoners;
seek the resumption of human rights dialogues with China;
continue to express concern to China regarding allegations of
organ trafficking in that country; and
offer to assist with the further progression of ethical reforms to the Chinese organ matching and transplantation system.
Australian involvement in organ trafficking and transplant tourism
Recommendation 3
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government meets international best practice standards by establishing a comprehensive organ donation data collection repository, based possibly on the ANZDATA model, but comprising a single point of access to data regarding all organ transplantations in Australia, including outcomes of treatment, deaths, travel overseas for treatment, cross referencing against waiting lists and other relevant information.
Recommendation 4
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government ensures that suitably-anonymised data regarding the participation by Australians in overseas commercial transplants, or those involved in organ procured from a non-consenting donor overseas, be shared with appropriate international partners, in order to combat transnational organ trafficking through cross-jurisdictional intelligence sharing.
Recommendation 5
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government works with the States and Territories, transplant registries, and the medical community, to consider the appropriate parameters, protections, and other considerations, to support a mandatory reporting scheme whereby medical professionals have an obligation to report, to an appropriate registry or authority, any knowledge or reasonable suspicion that a person under their care has received a commercial transplant or one sourced from a non-consenting donor, be that in Australia or overseas.
International frameworks to combat organ trafficking and organ transplant tourism
Recommendation 6
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, and works with the States and Territories to make the requisite amendments to Commonwealth and State and Territory legislation and ensure non-legislative obligations are met.
Australian legal and policy issues
Recommendation 7
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government amend the Criminal Code Act 1995 and any other relevant legislation insofar as offences relating to organ trafficking:
include trafficking in human organs, including the solicitation of a commercial organ transplant;
apply to any Australian citizen, resident or body corporate;
apply regardless of whether the proscribed conduct occurred either within or outside of the territory of Australia;
apply regardless of the nationality or residence of the victim; and
apply regardless of the existence, or lack thereof, of equivalent laws in the jurisdiction in which the offending conduct occurred.
Recommendation 8
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government establishes a multi-lingual public health education program that:
addresses the legal, ethical and medical risks associated with participation in organ transplant tourism;
includes a stream for educating frontline staff such as medical professionals about how to best identify possible cases of organ harvesting and support both vulnerable victims and desperate
patients, based possibly on the Anti-Slavery Australia e-learning model;
is multi-lingual; and
is designed in particular to educate Australians who were born in, or have family associations in, countries where human organ trafficking is known or suspected to occur.
Recommendation 9
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government includes information on trafficking in human organs and transplant tourism on relevant government websites, including on the SmartTraveller.gov.au website, on country-specific pages of countries where human organ trafficking is known or suspected to occur.
Recommendation 10
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government
work with medical professionals, and other relevant stakeholders, to examine the impact of non-specialist prescribing of immunosuppressant medication on the efficacy of post-operative care and;
examine ways to implement capture of data relating to the prescribing of immunosuppressant medication including that relating to transplants occurring overseas.
Recommendation 11
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government seeks to improve organ donation rates through a number of approaches including:
consultation with the relevant agencies, continue the promotion of organ donation including education and awareness campaigns.
ongoing funding of the Supporting Leave for Living Organ Donors program and the Australian Paired Kidney Exchange Program (AKX).
further investigation of other countries donation programs, including Opt-Out organ donation programs to determine whether such a program could be appropriate for the Australian health system.
Case study on alleged human tissue trafficking
Recommendation 12
The Sub-Committee recommends that the Australian Government works with the States and Territories, as a matter of priority, to ensure that any person or body corporate importing human tissue into Australia for commercial purposes produces verifiable documentation of the consent of the donor person or their next-of-kin. This could include appropriate legislative changes at the Commonwealth or State and Territory level where required.