Dao Hong Lan said the draft Law on Donation, Procurement, and Transplantation of Human Tissues, Organs, and Cadavers (amended) is drawing attention during the 2nd Session of the 16th National Assembly as lawmakers weigh tighter organ donation rules for people under 18. The proposal comes as the supply of donated organs has not met treatment needs for nearly 20 years.
That shortfall has left many patients, especially children with serious illnesses, facing prolonged waiting times. The draft separates living tissue donation from organ donation after death, including brain death and circulatory death, and puts different legal limits on each path.
National Assembly debate
During the session, National Assembly deputies, experts, and the public have focused on the draft because it updates the 2006 framework. The amended text would keep healthy organ harvesting from living individuals under 18 strictly prohibited while allowing a narrow exception for regenerative tissue such as hematopoietic stem cells when needed to save a relative’s life and no suitable adult donor is available.
The draft also requires independent health and psychological assessment and counseling before any living donation by a person under 18, along with consent from both the child and. That structure is meant to separate a permitted family emergency from broader donation practices that remain off-limits for minors.
Minor donation safeguards
For post-death donation, the draft allows tissue and organ harvesting from individuals under 18 only when there is a legitimate wish to donate and a representative gives consent. An independent expert council must verify those cases before any harvesting takes place.
The draft also bars buying, selling, coercion, brokering, and the exploitation of guardianship or adoption relationships to obtain tissues and organs from minors. Offenders in such cases will face punishment under criminal law. In the same parliamentary session, Dao Hong Lan also said the drafting agency is seeking a transparent legal framework that does not hinder production and business activities, while prioritizing the health and lives of the people above all else.
Dao Hong Lan and draft law
For families facing long waits, the practical issue is not whether donation remains legal, but whether the new rules can expand donation only inside tightly controlled limits. The draft keeps that door narrow: it opens one exception for rare living donation by minors and one route for post-death donation, then surrounds both with consent, medical review, and criminal penalties. A separate health-sector discussion ran alongside the parliamentary debate, but the organ donation draft is the one now setting the terms for minors.
