The power of organ donation

We all know that charity is a virtue. But it is all the more so when we refer it to an act of gifting a life to a person. Organ donation is one such generous and noble act that humans can do for their fellow beings.

Donation of organs benefits donors and recipients, their families, friends and colleagues who love and support those in need of transplantation. It is a life-giving and life-enhancing opportunity to those who are at the end of the line for hope.

We generally see that donation of an organ becomes possible in cases like a fatal accident, sudden cardiac arrest, or brain-dead events, but that too only if the bereaved family members agree.

It was a headline across India recently about the mother of a young software engineer who agreed to donate her dead son's organs in the most virtuous manner that his death enabled other patients to live longer.

Although organ donation is an individual choice, if more people come forward as this distressed mother did, it can help alleviate the suffering of thousands of people who die annually. This can also make use of a multitude of healthy organs that are buried on cemeteries or burnt away on funeral grounds every day.

Though organ donation, whether from the living or the deceased, is gaining momentum, there is still a widening gap between the need for and the supply of transplantable organs.

Thousands of people are waiting for organ transplants across the world. Sadly, many of those unfortunate will never get the call into the hospital for their transplant and will die due to a shortage of people willing to donate their organs.

According to data gathering firm Statitia, there were a total of 157,494 organ transplants worldwide in 2022. Kidney is the most transplanted organ worldwide, followed by the liver and the heart.

Spain had the highest rate of deceased organ donors among select OECD countries, with 47 people per million populations. The United States registered 44.5 donors per million people in 2022.

In the Sultanate of Oman, a country with a population of about five million, reports show that there were 19 kidney transplants and 11 liver transplants in Oman in 2023, while the number of people who pledged to donate organs after death has crossed 12,000 during the same period.

Through its National Organ Transplant Programme, the Omani government sets strategies and national laws and policies and monitors organ transplantation in the country.

Unfortunately, our society is not ready to accept that donating body parts is an honourable and ‘ethical’ act. It doesn’t understand the fact that “during one's life one may be just as easily a potential organ receiver as one is an organ donor.”.

Many are worried over losing their loved one and, as such, might not want to think about losing any organ of the dead.

But why is there resistance to organ donation that, on the other hand, will mitigate the misfortune of thousands? In many cases, as experts point out, it is because of lack of awareness, religious and cultural influences, distrust of medicine, and hostility to new ideas, ethical rules, and misinformation.

Experts believe that education can streamline public opinion, and this, on the other hand, will make society accept that organ donation is a moral act and a source of health for everybody.

Significantly, most religious groups accept organ donation. Many of them believe organ donation is an act of charity, and some have even gone to the extent of declaring that it is “a duty.”

We know it is hard to think about donating organs, but the act can save lives. The person in need of an organ today may be a stranger, but tomorrow he or she may be your benefactor and they will love you dearly! Organ donation is the right thing to do!