MOLDOVA RATIFIES CoE CONVENTION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN ORGANS

Moldova ratified the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs. According to the CoE website, the document was adopted in Santiago de Compostela in March 2015 and is open for signing.

The convention is calling on governments to declare as criminally punishable the illegal removal of organs from living or deceased donors, if it is done without their free, informed and directly expressed consent, or if the donor is dead, when the withdrawal is held with violation of the country legislation. Also, the living donor or the third person receives financial profit or comparable other benefits in compensation of the removed organ; in compensation of the organ removed from a dead donor, the third person receives financial profit or other type of benefits.

The convention also implies measures on protecting victims and compensations to them, prevention measures for ensuring transparency and equal access to organ transplantation surgeries.