Human Tissue Donation Act

Northwest Territories did not actually include inter vivos tissue donation (tissue donated while still living) in their organ donation legislation until 2014, at which point they adopted the 1990 Uniform Human Tissue Donation Act and excluded spermatozoa, ova, embryo, and fetus from their definition of “tissue”. Interestingly, the prohibition on sale is not as broad as in other provinces, as it does not include the words “any body or part or parts thereof”, instead it is limited to “any tissue”. Thus, it clearly excludes the reproductive tissues and blood from the definition of “tissue”, also excluding them from the prohibition on sale. Meaning those exempt tissues could theoretically be sold in the Northwest Territories under the Human Tissue Donation Act.