President Akufo-Addo is keen on the legislation of organ donation in Ghana – Dr. Nsiah-Asare

The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare has said that President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has a keen interest in the need for the legislation of organ donation in Ghana.

According to him, president Akuffo-Addo is ever ready to append his signature to the legislation when it gets to his office.

He disclosed that the Ghana Kidney Association (GKA) and then the Ghana Ophthalmologic Association (GOA) of Ghana are working assiduously to ensure that the legislation of organ donation comes to fruition.

In an interview with GhanaWeb TV on The Lowdown, on August 7, 2023, Dr. Nsiah-Asare said that he has briefed President Akufo-Addo comprehensively on the legislation of organ donation in Ghana and he is optimistic it will be passed into law before the president leaves office.

“We advise the president [Akufo-Addo] and he's very interested in improving the health systems in this country he showed it during the COVID, day and night.

"He was chairing the National COVID Tax Force, asking the relevant questions. He gave 29 addresses, the fellow Ghanaian's addresses. You can see that anytime he's speaking, he speaks with passion.

“People were thinking he has now become a professor of epidemiology because he listens and he looks at the welfare of Ghanaians and anything which will improve the health system because health is wealth. But we have to go through a system before we get this thing done. We are speaking behind closed doors, people who matter.

"We know already that they have something in front of them and they are looking at the ministry. But once in a while, I call to ask the legal person, where have you reached? And we are all keen.

“Apparently, both the Ghana Kidney Association and then the Ghana Ophthalmologic Association of Ghana have also all charged me personally, of course, when they have any meetings, they intentionally know you have the yes of the president now. And because of that, it's very dear to my heart both the kidney and the cornea,” he said.

Dr. Nsiah-Asare further intimated that education on organ donation in Ghana should not be limited to only health professionals but all individuals.

“The education should not be only for the health professional. Should be for everybody, the entire population. They are going to be the donors. And especially, as you rightly said, the spiritual aspect of it is very important.

"So we let the spiritualists and the other people understand that if somebody dies yes. And he has a very good organ to donate, and he takes it and is buried or he's cremated, you just burn it off, which he can use to save people,” he told Ghanaweb TV.

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Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.

BS/WA