ASCERTAINING THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON ORGAN DONATION IN KENYA.
Description
The medical transplantation of human body organs remains the only worthwhile therapy for patients who are antagonized with the veracity of passing away due to the failure of their vivacious body organs such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, and liver. Organ donation and transplant has indeed rapidly evolved areas in medical science bettering survival and quality of life. However, the expectation of improving and lengthening lives on earth has been devastated by the constant scarcity and scantiness of suitable organ donors. The scarcity of human organs is an issue of great concern in public health, both locally and internationally and the current viewpoint is unwelcoming. In Kenya Organ shortage, poor legislations and policies as well as financial and capacity issues have presented a major challenge in the field of organ donation prompting the need for adequate legal and ethical framework. Indeed for organ donation to take root, and flourish, it is important that we have a clear legal and ethical framework to govern it. This study seeks to critically evaluate the social and philosophical arguments on organ donation highlighting the legal framework therein. In a quest to explore the place of organ donation, this study will rely heavily on desktop searches backed by a consultation of both primary and secondary sources of the information related to the study. The study was based on the theory of prototype willingness model and the world system theory. From the study, it is established that Kenya lacks an elaborate regulatory mechanism on matters organ donation. A lack of awareness or educational, religious, and cultural backgrounds and myths regarding organ donation, equally, have negatively impacted organ donation in Kenya. This study recommends further research into organ donation, and the development of a social work model to increase the awareness rate of organ donation. It calls for the re-evaluation of legislation that regulates organ donation in Kenya.