Human Organ Transplant Bill

Bill No. 26/1986

Read the first time on 27th October 1986.

An Act to make provision for the removal of organs from the bodies of persons who died as a result of accident for transplantation, for the definition of death and for the prohibition of trading in organs and blood and for purposes connected therewith.

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Human Organ Transplant Act 1986 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“designated officer”, in relation to a hospital, means a person appointed under section 4 to be the designated officer of the hospital;

“Director” means the Director of Medical Services;

“hospital” means —

(a)	a hospital established and administered by the Government;
(b)	a private hospital which is declared by the Minister by notification in the Gazette to be a hospital for the purposes of this Act;

“medical practitioner” means a person who is registered, or deemed to be registered, as a medical practitioner under the Medical Registration Act (Cap. 218);

“organ” means —

(a)	except as provided in paragraph (b), the kidney of a human body; and
(b)	for the purposes of Part IV, any organ of a human body.

When death occurs

3.—(1) For the purposes of this Act, a person has died when there has occurred irreversible cessation of all functions of the brain of the person.

(2) The Minister may prescribe the criteria for determining the irreversible cessation of all functions of the brain of a person referred to in subsection (1).

Designated officers

4. The Director may nominate, in writing, any medical practitioner to be the designated officer of a hospital for the purposes of this Act.

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