HM says working to legalize organ transplants from deceased

[DJKeefy]

Health Ministry says working to legalize organ transplants from deceased.

Assistant Health Minister Abdel Hamid Abaza said the Health Ministry has not yet made a decision to allow organ transplant from the recently deceased, but is working to legalize the practice by the end of 2013.

According to MENA, Abaza said at a press conference that Egyptian patients mostly cannot afford the cost of organ transplant, which exceeds LE180,000 in the case of liver transplants.

Abaza said that efforts are being made to find mechanisms to reduce these costs and have hospitals share in them.

In 2012, Egypt issued a law that set standards governing the process of organ transplant.

Since the law was issued, 2,424 organ transplants were performed, including 624 liver transplants and 1,800 kidney transplants.

He added that the ministry inspects the 22 hospitals that carry out transplant surgeries across Egypt. Another 28 hospitals were given a grace period to legalize their status by December in order to be granted permits for transplant surgeries.

Abaza also called on the Supreme Council of Journalism to stop the posting of ads that ask for organ donors, saying they are illegal and open the door to organ trafficking.

Source: http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/he ... s-deceased

[Horus]

Just as a matter of interest what is the religious aspect to these transplants, would a Muslim be happy with one that came from a Christian and vice versa? I ask this because of the things that would be considered haram to the recipient, for example a Christian may eat pork and drink alcohol which through consumption will have formed part of their organs, you are what you eat so to speak. Or would it just be considered as OK under those circumstances, would one faith object to the organ being given to someone of another faith. I personally would have no problem with any donation, in fact the purer they kept themselves the better it would suit me.

[Winged Isis]

This is great news! Hopefully, as in other countries, the donor would be totally anonymous, so the recipient would have no idea what their gender, religion etc.

[Horus]

I accept that the donors would be anonymous, but we in the West don't usually have the same sort of religious taboos, so I wondered just how acceptible it would be once people started to question the religious aspects of it, for example can you despise another religion and their practices, but find it acceptible to have say the heart of an infidel implanted? I would hope that it made no difference because that would only reinforce the stupidity of religious segregation being practiced in the first place.

[Ruby Slippers]

I would think 'Expediency Rules, OK?' Horus!

[Horus]

I agree, but I raise it as a valid point, here in the UK the lowest donations for kidney transplants are amongst the Black and Asian communities, here is a quote from the NHS Blood & Transplant site:

People from South Asian, African and Afro-Caribbean communities living in the UK are more likely to need a kidney transplant than the rest of the population:

Black people are three times as likely as the general population to develop kidney failure
The need for organs in the Asian community is three to four times higher.

This is because people from these communities are more likely to develop diabetes or high blood pressure, both of which are major causes of kidney failure.

Unfortunately, while the need for donor organs is three to four times higher than among the general population, donation rates are relatively low among black and South Asian communities, thus reducing the chance of a successful match being found.

Link: https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/ho ... mmunities/

So whereas the need is greatest amongst that particular sector of the community any participation by them is considerably less, hence my question as it does seem that the burden of organ donation does fall more on one sector than another and that may be due to religious or cultural differences.