Some 65 percent of Saudis reject the donation of organs of relatives who are registered in a donation program after their death, a senior official of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT) said.

SCOT Medical Director Bishr Al-Attar said the center will attempt to convince 10 percent of Saudi society to donate organs in the next 10 years.

He said there were nearly 100,000 organ donors on the donation program list and expressed hope the number will climb to 3 million in the next 10 years.

There are 6,000 patients seeking kidney transplants across the Kingdom, he said.

According to experts, there are 18,000 patients with renal failure in the Kingdom. In this context, SCOT Director General Faissal Shaheen said the number of patients with renal failure is expected to increase by 3,000 cases annually.

The SCOT official said that the Kingdom used to import corneas from abroad, while the remaining organs cannot be imported due to the pressing need of such organs in all countries.

He said that there is a need for transplantation of 500 livers, 200 hearts and 50 pancreases.

SCOT is working on improving the number and percentage of transplanted organs to help the high number of patients.