RAMALLAH, West Bank —  At the Palestinian Cabinet’s weekly session Jan. 31, the government decided to postpone the ratification of a bill on human organ transplants, since many other pressing issues were on the table, a government source told Al-Monitor. The source also said the ministers needed more time to respond to the bill, which was presented to them Jan. 3. Once the bill is passed, it will be presented to President Mahmoud Abbas to be signed into law.

The law, prepared by the Health Ministry, would establish a “supreme committee on human organ transplants” headed by the health minister and including members from Palestine’s Dar al-Ifta religious council and the Justice Ministry. Its job would be to organize and administer transplant operations and organ donations and to monitor them according to the law.

The organ transplant law comes under the Palestinian Basic Law — effectively Palestine’s constitution — which allows for organ donations providing a law is set to manage them. Article 16 of the Basic Law says, “No medical experiment or operation may be carried out on someone without prior legal consent, and nobody may be subjected to a medical examination, treatment or operation except under law. The law shall regulate the provisions of organ transplants and other scientific advances for legitimate humanitarian purposes.”

The new law will allow any citizen to donate permitted organs to any person. Currently, the Health Ministry does not allow people to donate organs to anyone except relatives, primarily because no law exists to allow for it. The new law could allow for the creation of an organ bank.