The Ministry of Health and Social Services seeks to modernise its outdated health laws through two proposed Bills, including Human Tissue Bill and Blood Service Bill aimed at improving the regulation of blood services and human donations.
The Health Ministry is conducting countrywide consultations with Keetmanshoop in ||Kharas region being their recent stop.
A small number of stakeholders attended the consultation, where the Ministry of Health and Social Service officials presented the reasons for repealing the outdated existing laws.
The proposed Draft Human Tissue Bill seeks to replace the Anatomical Donations and Post-Mortem Examination Ordinance of 1977, while the new Blood Service Bill will replace the Blood Transfusion Act of 1962.
The aim of the consultation seeks public input and recommendation to ensure the proposed legislation addresses current medical practices and the needs of the country.
During the presentation, the stakeholders agreed that both these laws are outdated and need to be modernised and fit the needs of the country.
Hilma Naimbale, a member of the Wechnical Working Group, said, "These are the regulations that are kind of discriminating in terms of race and gender. You say if a white person cannot get blood from a Black person, those types of discriminations are in that legislation. Hence, we came up with a new bill to repeal those regulations because they are still the current laws we are using, but they are in legislation, so we came up with a law that is regulating the blood service in Namibia."
The proposed Human Tissue Bill also seeks to strengthen the regulation of organ and tissue donations, transplantations and related medical procedures, and it further addresses issues such as surrogacy and also provides for voluntary donations of human tissue to educational and research institutions.
Meanwhile, Medical Officer Dr Darion Resandt, who was leading the presentation, further explained that the proposed Blood Service Bill aims to improve the regulation and safety of blood services in the country.
" It also seeks to regulate the granting of licences for the purpose of the control of the collection processing of blood in Namibia. It also provides the safe provision of blood and the protection of recipients and donors of blood and employees and other persons involved in the collection, processing and provision of blood."
Resandt also added that the proposed Blood Service Bill outlines the powers and functions of the Minister and the Executive Director in overseeing blood services in the country.