This Year f you are a resident of Brazil, you are an organ donor, under a new law enacted in the South American country earlier this year. The bill was signed into law last month by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who vetoed a few objectionable clauses. The law allows Brazilian authorities to use the organs of the deceased for transplants without the person's prior consent, unless the individual has affirmatively declined to donate organs by a declaration on his identity card or drivers license. The law stipulates that relatives of the deceased must be consulted before their organs are used. The new law has bitterly divided the Catholic Church and civil rights groups, as well as the medical profession, according to the Reuters news service.
Brazil faces a desperate short-age of organ donors.
Bill sponsor Sen. Lucio Alcantra said that 60 percent of the 25,000 Brazilians receiving dialysis treatment for kidney disease could be cured if kidneys were available for trans-plant operations. The law goes into effect this month. It is not expected to have an immediate impact on the number of transplantable organs available. Despite the positive image organ donation enjoys in Brazil, the rate of donation is extremely low due to the lack of structure to collect organs and notify potential recipients. Nonetheless, the number of donors in the whole state last year was only about 1000.