Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Treat passage of Human Organ and Tissue Bill with urgency!!

Many people consider the eyes to be the most important of the human senses because they provide vision, which is the ability to see.

Even though some blind people have become renowned achievers, blindness in many people has devastated their lives because it has inhibited the use of their potential in many areas of life.

This is why it is sad to hear that about 26,000 Ghanaians in need of cornea transplants risk losing their vision due to the absence of a law to support the harvesting of tissues locally.

The eye is made up of many parts, including the iris, pupils, lens, macula, choroid, optic nerve, cornea, and sclera, which work to complement each other.

What that means is that a defect or disease affecting any of the parts of the eye does not augur well for good vision.

The importance of the eyes makes it imperative that eye health be prioritised by every country.

In view of this, one wonders why eye health experts in the country are now bemoaning the absence of a law to back the local harvesting of tissues like the cornea, knowing very well that such a law has been in place elsewhere for years.

It is on record that corneal transplantation started in the late 1800s, with the first eye bank established nearly 90 years ago and the procedure having been done routinely since the 1960s.

It is said that at present, there are more than 44,000 corneal transplants done globally every year.

This means if getting the tissues for the procedure needs legislation, then the bottom line is that those providing the tissues have already sought that legislation.

Is it now that corneal transplantation has become an issue in eye care in the country, such that it was only last year that the Human Organ and Tissue Bill was drafted to seek legal backing for organ and tissue donation as well as transplantation in the country?

The bill seeks, among other things, to not only create a national authority to oversee and regulate organ or tissue donation and transplantation but also to protect the rights and interests of donors, recipients, and their families while ensuring ethical and legal standards around such procedures to meet the growing demand in the country.

The purpose of the bill, when passed into law, is enormous, which demands that lawmakers treat its passage with urgency.

Imagine, for instance, that when the Human Organ and Tissue Bill becomes law, it will help establish eye banks and provide fair and much-needed transplantation services to help restore sight to thousands in the country.

Corneal surgeons in the country cannot perpetually be dependent on sourcing tissues from abroad, which is both costly and time-consuming.

The world has come to a point where almost every endeavour needs legal backing; otherwise, even things done with good intentions can end up in all manner of disputes and battles.

Think about it: for the most part, corneal donation comes from people who are dead, and it is in very rare circumstances that a donor may be living.