Ukrainian legislation has prohibited organ transplants of servicemen who died during hostilities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since 2019. A new draft law under review is designed to clarify previously adopted norms, broadening the ban on organ removal from servicemen who died in the line of duty anywhere in Ukraine, where hostilities are taking place.
The Kremlin media is once again disseminating stories about “black organ transplantology,” claiming Ukraine is concealing deceased Ukrainian soldier organ transplants and selling them to other countries.
The source for this new wave of Russian disinformation is Ukrainian draft law No. 9482, which amends existing legislation on transplantation. According to Russian propagandists, the proposed amendments only confirm the illicit Ukrainain organ trade.
“The Verkhovna Rada practically recognizes the fact of transplantation of servicemen’s organs, but they don’t talk about it publicly. However, Ukraine’s Nazi image is already difficult to clear up’’, – writes the Argumenty i Fakty Russian online newspaper
Claims that Ukraine is somehow hiding soldiers’ organ transplants, and enacting laws to facilitate this are blatant lies, intended to bolster existing Russian disinformation narratives about “black transplants’’ carried out on Ukrainian soldiers operated on in the war zone.
In reality, draft law No. 9482 only clarifies certain aspects of previously enacted Ukrainian legislation on organ transplants.
In Ukraine, removing anatomical organs for transplantation from persons who died in hostilities in the Donetsk and Luhansk has been prohibited since 2018, such a law was passed in 2018 and came into effect on January 1, 2019.
As the war has spread beyond these Donetsk and Luhansk areas, the ban on removing organs for transplants will also apply to persons who “serve in military and law enforcement bodies, or their units, institutions and organizations, formed in accordance with the laws of Ukraine”.
The authors of the draft law explain the new amendments will contribute to legal clarity and unambiguous law enforcement in the field of organ transplants. A clear ban on removing organs from those who died in combat is intended to prevent disinformation, fakes and hostile propaganda, and aims to strengthen the positive perception of voluntary organ donation.
The main principle of organ transplants is complete transparency, explains Vasyl Strilka, general director of the Ukrainian Health Ministry’s High-Technology Medical Care and Innovation Directorate.
“An organ does not come out of nowhere, you don’t remove it from someone in some basement and sell it to someone who needs it. First of all, organ transplants for patients in Ukraine are free, the operations are paid for by the state, so financial incentives are generally excluded here. Secondly, organ transplant operations involve large teams of people and it is highly unlikely that any secrets can be kept in this process. Thirdly, we have a database of potential donors and a database of candidates for transplants. Nobody transplants organs without knowing where they came from! Organ documentation always indicates in which hospital, from whom and by whom the organ was removed,” Strilka explained.
StopFake has previously debunked similar fakes that the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in Mykolayiv morgue were used for transplants, that the organs of Ukrainian refugees were sold in Poland, and that Ukrainians would be used for organ transplantation without their consent.
