We welcome the institutionalization by law of the Israel National Transplant Center. There is great importance to the activities of the Center that assists in coordinating transplants and enables, in practice, the transplant system to function throughout the country. The importance of the Center is heightened in light of its aim to encourage and increase organ donations. The inherent shortage of organs that prompts Israel and other countries to search for solutions and to increase the supply of organs in the country necessitates the operation of an entity such as the Israel National Transplant Center that will act to heighten awareness of the issue and will encourage families and individuals to donate organs.

Therefore, we find it perplexing that such an important, central and lofty goal is missing from the draft laws with respect to the roles of the Center.

We suggest wording the end of the section as follows:

“The Israel National Transplant Center will act to increase the number of organ transplants in Israel and to maximize the potential donors in the country and will coordinate the supervision and control of organ harvesting and transplants, including: (1)…

We also suggest adding the words “to educate and increase awareness” to sub-section 5, to enable such activities in order to encourage organ donations.

Such wording of the section will underscore the commitment of the Center to encourage organ transplants and to bring the issue to the knowledge of the public such that in the future, we hope, the severe organ shortage, particularly in Israel, will decrease.