DOH invites CBCP to be part of organ committee, todays news..

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Health (DOH) wants the Roman Catholic Church to be part of a special committee that will screen all human organ transplants in the country in a bid to stop the illegal sale of kidney.
In an interview with Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla Wednesday, he said that they have already sent an invitation to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to be part of the Philippine Network for Organ Donation and Transplantation (PhilNetDat).
“We have sent our formal invitations to them for them to be part of the committee that will help solve the problem on transplants,” he said.
PhilNetDat is the implementing arm of the Philippine Board for Organ Donation and Transplantation that was created to form the policy governing human organ transplants. The board earlier approved a total ban on all kidney transplants for foreign patients except when their donors are connected to them by consanguinity.
Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros, head of the CBCP’s office on bioethics, said he and Sister Rosanne Malillin of the church’s social action arm, were to sit as the clergy’s representative to PhilNetDat. “As of now, we have yet to receive a formal invitation to take part as member,” Oliveros told church-run Radio Veritas Wednesday.
Oliveros vowed to make sure that moral issues would be considered when he and Malillin sit as members of the committee. “We’ll see to it that this will be fruitful,” he said.
The CBCP has repeatedly voiced their strong opposition to the illegal sale of kidney, which is done mostly by poor Filipinos who become victims of brokers looking for donors. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III had admitted that the Church was very influential in the government’s decision to issue a total ban on kidney transplant for foreign patients.

source: GMANews.TV