Organ donor cost waiver applauded

Doctors have welcomed the Hospital Authority's decision to waive the medical fees of live-organ donors, saying the move gives recognition to people who risk their own health to save others.

Since last month, the authority has waived all medical fees - including hospital stays, medical investigations and pre-transplant counselling - of living-organ donors.

While organ donors in the United States, Britain and Singapore are allowed under the law to be financially compensated, those in Hong Kong do not have a similar benefit. And until last month, donors here were still required to pay their own medical fees at public hospitals. Some doctors had complained that the policy was insensitive, and called for a waiver.

Last year, 42 living donors gave part of their livers and 12 donated one of their kidneys, according to the authority.

Chau Ka-foon, president of the Hong Kong Society of Transplantation, welcomed the fee waiver.

'We always encourage organ donation from deceased patients instead of living donors. But as some patients in reality have to rely on living donors, we should give those donors due recognition,' she said.

An authority spokesman said the policy had been changed due to a rethink which concluded that because organ donors were not seeking treatment at public hospitals, they should not be charged.