Human Tissue Gift Act

In 1974, Saskatchewan made the decision to adopt the Uniform Law Conference of Canada’s 1971 Uniform Human Tissue Gift Act. After implementation of the initial Human Tissue Gift Act very little debate about organ or tissue donation legislation took place within government, besides discussions regarding the formation of a donation registry.

In 2014, Bill 157 was introduced and gave forth to considerable discussion regarding the sale of tissue. The discussion was the result of an amendment made to the section on the prohibition on sale which made the section “subject to the regulations”, arguably giving the executive government an opportunity to allow for the sale of tissues in certain circumstances. The Minister of Health at that time stated that:

This legislation will allow the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations that establish standards, practices, and procedures that improve access to transplantation. With this increased flexibility, Saskatchewan’s transplant services can better reflect current practices in organ and tissue donations and can take advantage of opportunities to improve care for patients. The need for organ and tissue transplants in Saskatchewan far exceeds the number of donors.[i]

The opposition party voiced considerable concern over the ability of the executive government to make such regulations. Concerns expressed by the opposition included questions about whether there would be standards for sale and purchase, who would be allowed to purchase tissues, whether there would be public discussion about selling tissue, whether there would be an ethics board, whether tissue from Saskatchewan donors would be sold to other countries or provinces, and generally concern over the privatization of health care in Saskatchewan.[ii]

The definition of tissue was also amended in 2014, to exempt sperm, ova, embryos and fetuses, however there was no discussion of this change. Notably, unlike the other provinces who have amended the definition of tissue, Saskatchewan chose to keep the earlier exemptions to skin, bone, blood, blood constituents and other tissue that is “replaceable by natural processes of repair”. Tendon was also added to the list of exempt tissues, as with the other exemptions, no explanation was provided in debate. To note, the prohibition on sale is expansive, stating that no person shall sell “any body or part of a body” other than blood and blood constituents. Presumably the exempted tissues would fall under “part of a body” and therefore the prohibition on sale would cover those exempted tissues, but it is not wholly clear that this is the case. But, as previously noted, Saskatchewan’sHuman Tissue Gift Act, now allows the executive government to make regulations to allow for the sale of any tissue.

Pay-for-Plasma Clinic

The exclusion of blood from the definition of tissue and explicitly from the prohibition on sale, has allowed for a private company to set up a paid plasma donation clinic. The clinic was established in February 2016 and has been operating since. While other provinces have since created legislation to outlaw the sale of blood products, presently Saskatchewan has opted not to do so. Bill 617, An Act respecting Voluntary Blood Donation was introduced by the opposition party in May of 2019 but was never passed.[iii] As of 2024, pay-for-plasma clinics are currently operating in Saskatoon and Regina.

References

[i] Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Debates and Proceedings, “Bill 157, The Human Tissue Gift Act, 2014“, 2nd Reading, 27:4, vol 57, no 13A (17 November 2014) at 5878 (Hon Mr Duncan).

[ii] Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Debates and Proceedings, “Bill 157, The Human Tissue Gift Act, 2014“, 2nd Reading, 27:4, vol 57, no 14A (18 November 2014) at 5918 (Mr Nilson); Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Debates and Proceedings, “Bill 157, The Human Tissue Gift Act, 2014“, 2nd Reading, 27:4, vol 57, no 17B (24 November 2014) at 6031 (Mr Wotherspoon); Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Debates and Proceedings, “Bill 157, The Human Tissue Gift Act, 2014“, 2nd reading, 27:4, vol 57, no 22B (02 December 2014) at 6200 (Ms Sproule); Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Debates and Proceedings, “Bill 157, The Human Tissue Gift Act, 2014“, 2nd reading, 27:4, vol 57, no 25B (08 December 2014) at 6316 (Mr McCall).

[iii] Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Debates and Proceedings, “Bill 617, The Voluntary Blood Donation Act”, 1st reading, 28:3, vol 60, no 60A (8 May 2019) at 5948.