From Principles to Practice: Assessing Nigeria’s Organ Transplant Regulatory Regime

Oluseyi Olayanju

Lecturer, Public and Private Law Department, Lagos State University Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria.

Abstract

Globally, organ donation and transplantation save and improve millions of lives yearly.  Despite the acclaim, various medical, ethical, moral and regulatory issues have trailed the procedure from the beginning until the present. This paper appraises Nigeria’s efforts to discharge its duty to provide an effective legal and regulatory framework for organ donation and transplantation in Nigeria. The international regulations, as well as the regulatory needs thrown up by the challenges of the field, serve as the standards against which Nigeria’s efforts are measured. This research utilises the doctrinal legal research methodology. This involves the systematic examination of primary and secondary legal sources to describe, analyse, and critique the existing state of the law and to propose normative reforms. Primary sources examined include the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, health-related legislation from Nigeria, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and South Africa, as well as relevant international instruments. Secondary sources consulted include journal articles, reports of civil society organisations, and the interpretive documents on international human rights instruments. The paper finds that while Nigerian law complies in some respects with the international regulations, there is a need to inculcate regulation on some omitted issues, strengthen the provisions on others, and provide more detailed rules on some other problematic subjects. It also finds that the government has habitually demonstrated a lackadaisical attitude with regard to providing or implementing the requisite legal framework on health sector issues.

Keywords: Organ donation, Organ transplantation, Nigeria, Medical ethics, Legal framework

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