Organ Transplantation and Its Social Implications
SIXTY-SECOND WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY Provisional agenda item 12.10
A62/15 26 March 2009
Human organ and tissue transplantation1
Report by the Secretariat
1. In 1991, the Forty-fourth World Health Assembly in resolution WHA44.25 endorsed the WHO Guiding Principles on Human Organ Transplantation. These Principles were the outcome of a process that began in 1987 when the Health Assembly first expressed concern, in resolution WHA40.13, about the commercial trade in human organs. Two years later, the Health Assembly called upon Member States to take appropriate measures to prevent the purchase and sale of human organs for transplantation (resolution WHA42.5). Over the past 18 years, the Guiding Principles have influenced legislation in more than 50 Member States as well as professional codes and practices. 2. In 2004, in the light of improvements in transplantation medicine and science as well as evolving practices and perceptions regarding organ and tissue transplantation, the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly, in resolution WHA57.18, requested the Director-General to carry out several consultative, scientific and normative activities and report back to the Health Assembly. In response to the specific request “to continue examining and collecting global data on the practices, safety, quality, efficacy and epidemiology of allogeneic transplantation and on ethical issues, including living donation,” the Secretariat has consulted extensively at national, regional and subregional levels with experts, representatives of health authorities and professional and scientific societies, lawyers and ethicists, and has created a global knowledge base on transplantation.2 This resource includes a global observatory on donation and transplantation, which was developed in collaboration with the Spanish national transplantation organization and launched on the Internet in 2006 as a tool for monitoring transplantation activities and practices at a global level and for
A62/15 26 March 2009
Human organ and tissue transplantation1
Report by the Secretariat
1. In 1991, the Forty-fourth World Health Assembly in resolution WHA44.25 endorsed the WHO Guiding Principles on Human Organ Transplantation. These Principles were the outcome of a process that began in 1987 when the Health Assembly first expressed concern, in resolution WHA40.13, about the commercial trade in human organs. Two years later, the Health Assembly called upon Member States to take appropriate measures to prevent the purchase and sale of human organs for transplantation (resolution WHA42.5). Over the past 18 years, the Guiding Principles have influenced legislation in more than 50 Member States as well as professional codes and practices. 2. In 2004, in the light of improvements in transplantation medicine and science as well as evolving practices and perceptions regarding organ and tissue transplantation, the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly, in resolution WHA57.18, requested the Director-General to carry out several consultative, scientific and normative activities and report back to the Health Assembly. In response to the specific request “to continue examining and collecting global data on the practices, safety, quality, efficacy and epidemiology of allogeneic transplantation and on ethical issues, including living donation,” the Secretariat has consulted extensively at national, regional and subregional levels with experts, representatives of health authorities and professional and scientific societies, lawyers and ethicists, and has created a global knowledge base on transplantation.2 This resource includes a global observatory on donation and transplantation, which was developed in collaboration with the Spanish national transplantation organization and launched on the Internet in 2006 as a tool for monitoring transplantation activities and practices at a global level and for