A Fatwa on Organ Transplant Needed

Tuesday, 24 April 2007
By Sabria S. Jawhar
The Saudi Gazette

KIDNEY failure continues to increase as a phenomenon all over the world, and Saudi Arabia is no different. Almost 3,000 people in the Kingdom alone need a transplant of a healthy kidney in order to live.

However, a health official says a Fatwa (verdict) is needed that would allow doctors to use the body parts of dead patient or a brain dead one.

Faisal A. Shaheen, director-general of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation, said that issuing such a decision would largely help the Kingdom's government reduce the long waiting list for kidney transplants.
He said that there are almost 450 confirmed brain dead cases in Saudi hospitals.

Issuing a Fatwa would provide as many as 450 hearts and livers in good enough shape for transplant. It could also provide 900 kidneys, more than a third of the current waiting list.

Currently, the Ministry of Health spends almost SR1 billion annually on renal patients inside its hospitals. Each patient costs the government almost SR100,000 a year.

"It will also help in putting an end to the accumulation of the cases inside Saudi hospitals that cost the country a huge amount of money and effort," he said.

The Saudi community lacks awareness of the importance of organ donation, Shaheen said.

In contrast, in the West doctors are even entitled to use the body parts of a deceased donor immediately after his death, without consulting the family, if he elects to become a donor.

There are three million donor cards in Saudi Arabia, but these cannot be used without family's permission of the deceased.

"Here, and according to Shariah, permission of close relatives should be obtained before the use of any body part," he said.

The Saudi Commission of Senior Ulama (scholars) recently permitted tissue and organ transplantation from both living donors and cadavers. The decision marked a new era in organ transplantation in the Kingdom; however, with no crystal-clear Fatwa urging people to donate, the decision has been interpreted in many different ways.

In October 2006, a law was passed in Saudi Arabia to allow and compensate unrelated donors. The government, in cooperation with Prince Fahd Bin Salman Charity, has decided to offer life-long benefits to the donors, including lifetime medical care.

The law aims at stopping Saudi citizens from traveling abroad to Asian countries such to receive organ transplants, which might make them victims of scams or expose them to a variety of health problems.

To regulate live unrelated organ donation without a commercial transaction, Shaheen said, Saudi Arabia formed a committee that meets with the unrelated living donor and interviews him at least three times to make sure that he is donating out of his conscience and with complete willingness - not out of poverty, need or pressure.

The law is now in its final stages, after having been approved by the cabinet. The final stage, he said, is the approval of the Health Service Council chaired by the Minister of Health.

"Our main concern is how to make this new agreement purely altruistic," Shaheen said.

If approved, the law is expected to provide at least 400 kidneys yearly, which will go a long way toward ending organ shortages in the Kingdom, he said.