The Human Tissue Act

The implications for journalists of new legislation

Organ donation and trans-plantation was a topic frequently covered by the press during 1993. The Australian Coordinating Committee on Organ Registries and Donation (ACCORD) monitored over 400 features on the issue between January and December, and new developments in the field should see journalists maintaining their interest well into the future.

ACCORD commends the interest shown by journalists in the issue. Indeed, journalists, and the positive human interest angles they adopt, can receive much credit for the recent increase in Australia's organdonation rate. Nevertheless, there exist several legal aspects which journalists, editors and media proprietors should be aware.

The Human Tissue Act of 1983 was not only formulated to protect the organ donor, their family and the medical profession by establishing regulations on organ donation procedure, but formulated to protect the transplant recipient through laws relating to confidentiality and disclosure of information.

Section 37 of this act has been formulated largely to protect the confidentiality of organ donor families and recipients. This means that information which may link the donor and the recipient must not be disclosed, and any disclosure of this type of information may result in a breach of the Human Tissue Act.

This sort of identifying information includes the date of the death of the organ donor or the date a recipient has received their transplant. These dates cannot be published as, by releasing this information, it is possible for individuals to trace a connection between a donor and a recipient, thereby leaving the organ donor or recipient open to coercion or bribery. Although the Human Tissue Act in Australia prevents such connections being made, individuals from other countries without similar laws are not so protected and may suffer many inappropriate intrusions on their confidentiality.

Instead of publishing dates, it is possible to print the month or season an organ donation or transplant occurred. As many organ donations and transplants occur each month, and many are across state boundaries, it is extremely difficult to trace a connection between individuals. This method is the only safe way of ensuring the Human Tissue Act is followed, while still allocating an approximate time to the story.

Any other details on the Human Tissue Act and its ramification for journalists, editors or media proprietors is available from ACCORD.

Jack R Herman

see also
Response from Silent Hearts

Return to APC News 1994 Index

[ return to top ]

Documents with the icon require the Acrobat Reader, a Free Utility from Adobe. Click here for more information.