No. I am not asking for monetary donations for an electronic organ or even one of the giant pipe organs found in some churches.

I am talking about organs of human tissue.

It is only recently (last month) that the Human Tissue Transplant Law has been signed into law. This is despite nearly ten years ago being muted in the legislative Assembly by then UDP backbencher Ellio Solomon.

All transplant operations have been performed here using organ donations from overseas.

Following on from the implementation of the Human Tissue Transplant Law that now paves the way for voluntary donations locally by consent of family members whose loved ones had agreed to donation before their death, the government has now appointed the council to oversee it.

Local attorney Gina Berry has been appointed as the chair of the Human Tissue Transplant Council, with local physician Dr Diane Hislop-Chestnut as the deputy chair. They will be supported by members Robert Hamaty, a transplant survivor who has been advocating for the legislation for a long time, and Rev. Nicholas Sykes. The commissioner of police will also be represented on the council. All of the members have been appointed until August 2020.

The council will monitor the donation of tissue and be responsible for creating and maintaining a local donation register.

In the UK, the majority of those who join the National Health Service Organ Donor Register, choose to donate all their organs. However, they can also choose to donate your tissues. There are many restrictions that apply to organ donations that do not apply to tissue donations.

According to the Cayman Islands legislation, tissue donation will only be done on a voluntary basis. Under the law, tissues or organs will be harvested from a deceased person only if a licensed medical practitioner is satisfied that the person gave consent to do so while they were still alive.

Only those who are 18 or older may register as organ donors. Children can donate regenerative body tissue, but only with parental consent.

The law makes illegal trading of human body parts a crime and establishes a council to review the process of tissue donation and transplants, including inspections of any animal tissue imported into Cayman that would be used during transplant surgery.

Thank goodness government has finally made organ donations legal here. Sourcing them from overseas is a complex and time-consuming process. Often, patients found they had to go overseas themselves to either obtain the needed tissue or for the surgeries, or both.

I believe we have to thank Dr. Devi Shetty and his Health City Cayman Islands otherwise this legislation would still be lying on a shelf somewhere.