Spotlight: Donate life!

We can donate a new life to someone by donating organs, but that needs proper ethics, therapeutic and clinical protocols.

To address this issue, Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health, issued a ministerial decision to develop the National Programme to regulate the transplantation of human organs and tissues.

The decision aims at achieving the established principles in the field of the transfer and transplantation of human organs and tissues, contributing to the development of clinical scientific research, and initiating the implementation of Technical Committee recommendations to regulate the practice of the human organs and transfer of tissues.

The programme strives to develop evidence, therapeutic and clinical protocols, in addition to ethics of practice in the human organs and tissue transfer. It further addresses the establishment of a base that includes the registration of organ deficiencies as well as information about organ and tissue donors.

The National Programme for Regulating Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues also has priority to develop standard practices for performing human organ and tissue transplantation, control mechanisms and inspection of medical practices in this area, and develop a plan to enhance community awareness about the significance of tissue donation. It also has plans to inculcate the concept of medical will for body part donation.

Developing and regulating the transplantation of human organs and tissues are complex and difficult tasks in front of policymakers. Therefore, the programme would allow coordination among many parties and specialists to deal with the challenges and find out appropriate solutions.

organ donation

Alternative organ transplantation is the only life-saving method for patients with end-stage organ failure. Organs can be donated either through living organ donation for kidneys and liver or by deceased donor organ donation for the rest of the organs.

The list of patients who are waiting for an organ donor is very long. Due to a lack of awareness, not many donors are available. There are approximately 3,000 patients with

end-stage renal failure and currently relying on dialysis. Consequently, all efforts to encourage the community to donate with a living organ or after death are required as one living donor can save eight lives.

Zainab al Nassri

@zainabalnasseri