Schools across Việt Nam are rushing to collect students’ views on a government proposal to allow children to donate organs.
The Latest: Schools across Việt Nam are urgently distributing surveys to gather opinions from minors on a draft amendment to the Law on Donation, Removal and Transplantation of Human Tissues and Body Parts and the Donation and Removal of Bodies.
- On the morning of Oct. 22, a message circulated on social media revealing that the office of the Hồ Chí Minh City Young Pioneer Council sent Official Letter No. 63 to local councils, directing primary and lower secondary school units to distribute the survey to children.
- The letter established a deadline of Oct. 25, calling for them to strive “for 100% of children in the area to take part.”
- The directive noted, “Children answer by themselves; instructors must not answer for them.”
- Despite the stated Oct. 25 deadline, it remains unclear why the survey inexplicably closed on the afternoon of Oct. 22.
The Details: Since Oct. 12, the Health Ministry’s Department of Maternal and Child Health, the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights, and the Central Committee of the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union have asked multiple schools to execute the survey.
- A notice from the Youth Union of Bảy Hiền Ward in Hồ Chí Minh City, signed by Young Pioneer Council chair Cao Thị Hoàng Oanh, targeted “children in the ward” and also pushed for 100 percent participation.
- Schools such as the Phiêng Pằn Primary and Lower Secondary Boarding School in Sơn La and Kim Sơn Primary School in Gia Lai Province posted photographs of students “giving their opinions” on the draft.
To be clear, the Health Ministry assigned the survey to provinces, communes, hospitals, health centers, and medical facilities to carry out among individuals over and under 18, not exclusively students.
The Survey: Information about the survey was only posted by the Tissue and Organ Donation and Transplantation Registration Portal on Oct. 13.
- Eight days later, on the morning of Oct. 21, Health Minister Đào Hồng Lan presented the bill to the National Assembly.
The first section of the survey requires children to provide:
- Full name
- Gender
- Year of birth
- Ethnicity
- Location (commune, ward, or special zone)
- School level (primary, lower secondary, or other).
The second section asks if the following rules are “Reasonable,” “Not reasonable,” or “Other”:
- People aged 15 to under 18 may donate regenerative tissue while alive to family members.
- People under 15 may donate regenerative tissue while alive to their parents or siblings.
- In emergencies, tissue may be taken from people 18 or older who have not registered as donors but have given written consent.
On the question regarding removing tissues and organs from people under 18 after brain death or circulatory death, the survey offers only two options, and both allow removal based on conditions regarding donor registration.
- A child who wants to object can only write it in the “Other” box.
- Before presenting the question, the survey prefaces that tissues and organs from people under 18 “will be more suitable” for transplants into children, cites the number of children waiting for transplants at pediatric hospitals, and concludes:
“If people under 18 donate tissues and body parts after brain death or circulatory death, it will give many children a chance at life.”
The Draft: According to the government’s submission, the draft allows individuals under 18 to donate tissues and body parts in specific cases:
- Donation after death (brain death or circulatory death): Allowed if the person registered or expressed a wish to donate before death, and their legal representative consents.
- Living donation of regenerative tissue: People aged 15 to under 18 may donate to family members, while people under 15 may donate only to their parents or siblings. The Conditions stipulate that no suitable adult donor is available, counseling has been given, and both the legal representative and the donor consent.
From the Reviewing Committee: The National Assembly’s Committee on Culture and Society stated that minors, “especially children, are subjects requiring special protection,” and that a child’s objection must “always be given priority.”
- The committee recommended against removing tissues and organs from minors who died of unknown causes or showed signs of violence or abuse.
- It also warned of possible psychological and social consequences if minors are allowed to register as donors.
From Social Media: Many Threads accounts also voiced concern with many users interpreting the survey as a coercive method to obtain children’s consent.
On Oct. 22, the account tannha*** wrote: “After reading this I’m terrified; my hands and feet have gone weak. We give birth to our children and raise them, and they treat them like pigs and dogs, taking their organs whenever they want. All they need is to threaten a child into signing a consent form, and they can put our child on the operating table and take the organs. Parents just come to collect their child’s body and a donation consent form. It’s horrifying.”
- The post drew 1,500 likes within three hours.
The same day, the account duongh*** wrote: “Putting questions about life, death, brain death, circulatory death, and organ donation directly to children without going through their guardians is not only a legal overreach, but unintentionally becomes psychological violence, under the label of ‘gathering opinions.’”
Thành Phương wrote this news article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on October 22, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English.
