SCOT set to launch organ donation campaign

The Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT) will soon launch a new program aimed at increasing the number of organ donors, head of SCOT Faisal Shahin told a local daily.
Some 840 patients have bought human organs from foreign countries in the past 10 years, he was quoted as saying by the paper.
Shahin said that the Chinese ban on human organ trading earlier this year will minimize the illegal trade in human organs which rakes in large sums of money at the patient’s expense.
“The Kingdom doesn’t buy human organs from foreign countries but patients used to purchase organs and have them transplanted in foreign hospitals in exchange for exorbitant sums of money,” he said.
Heart and lung transplant operations have witnessed a remarkable development in the Kingdom where some 30 heart transplants were carried out last year at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center (KFHRC), which is indicative of the increased number of donors, notably among clinically dead patients, he said.
The Kingdom is medically competent to carry out all human organ transplant operations but the problem lies in the availability of organ donors, he said adding that widespread campaigns need to be activated to make people aware of the importance of donating organs after death.