ALKHOBAR: For a young accident victim or chronically ill hospital patient, cultural taboos against organ donations can be a death sentence. Now a group of highly motivated and concerned Saudis, led by prominent businessman Abdul Aziz Alturki, has launched discussions on the creation of a society to raise awareness about the issue in Saudi Arabia.
Donating organs to the sick or injured people is not considered to be an obligation by many in the Arab world and Saudi Arabia in particular. Yet hundreds, if not thousands, of Saudi men, women and children are forced to endure pain and misery in the absence of healthy organs.
“This is the need of the hour,” Alturki said at a meeting on the sidelines of the Third International Scientific Conference here yesterday. “There are so many people who are in need of organs to come out of their misery. Some of them are forced to travel abroad, to India and to the Philippines, and to pay an astronomical sum to buy an organ. Not all of them can afford that kind of money. So we thought why not create awareness in our society and to basically encourage people to donate their organs after their death.”
He said the concept is still being developed. “We are still deliberating about its composition and its rules and regulations. That is reason why we invited Dr. Fouad Beydoun, president of the International Association for Organ Donation in the American city of Detroit, and Dr. Faisal Shaheen, director of the Riyadh-based Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation,” Alturki said. “We are venturing in a new area, and we need to learn from the experience of others. We have to have clear-cut guidelines on organ transplantation.”
Alturki said Saudi scholars have encouraged organ donation as far back as 1930. “Sheikh Al-Sedhan urged people to save lives and donate their organs to the needy in 1930s. He would mention these things in his speeches in the Kingdom’s mosques during the time. Then we have had rulings from the late Sheikh Bin-Baz. He encouraged organ donation, too. In Islam saving life is more important than anything else.”
Among those who attended yesterday’s meeting was former Saudi Aramco executive Bidah Mejdal Al-Gahtani. He is one of the many promoters of the organ-donation campaign. “We’ve had this in mind for quite some time. We were trying to bring like-minded people together - people who share our concerns and can take the lead in educating the Saudi community about the importance of organ donations. The new society will help organize our efforts,” Al-Gahtani said.
He admitted some religious scholars are reluctant to condone organ transplantation. “A small fraction of Saudis are OK with only donating their organs among their close relatives. There is a lot of ignorance about the issue, and there ought to be a sustained campaign to increase awareness in our society,” he said. “A lot of people think organ transplantation is like cutting one hand off and putting it on another. They have little or no idea about this critical issue.”
Al-Gahtani said women would be an integral part of the society. “Women are our partners and strong partners, especially when it comes to voluntary work. This is going to be voluntary work. Look at the Saudi Cancer Foundation. There are now more women than men,” Al-Gahtani said.
Another member of the yet-to-be-named society is economic researcher Abdullah Al-Alami. “I am here at the invitation of Sheikh Alturki and Najeeb Al-Zamil, the well-known columnist and member of the Shoura Council,” he said. “This is going to be a charitable organization. The religious scholars will have to play a very important role in educating the pubic about the importance of donating organs. This will save so many lives and will bring so many people out of their current misery,” Al-Alami said.
Talking to Arab News on telephone from Cairo, prominent Islamic scholar and well-known medical practitioner Dr. Mohammad Haytham Al-Khayat said organ donation was highly recommended in Islam. “It is a kind of ‘sadaqa jariya,’ which is essentially an act of charity whose benefits continue after a person passes away,” he said, referring to a decision taken by leading Islamic scholars in Kuwait some years ago that endorsed organ donation and organ transplantation.
He said there are differences of opinion regarding organ donation from a person who is clinically dead. “Many of our scholars say one has to be sure that the man or woman is 100 percent dead before his or her organs are taken out for transplantation,” he said.
Al-Khayat asked what could be a stronger endorsement than the decision of Al-Azhar’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Sayyid Tantawi to donate all his organs to the needy. “Yes, he has already made this public. He has donated all his organs to the needy in the event of his death. There should be no confusion after that,” Al-Khayat added.
