IS ORGAN DONATION CONTOVERSIAL ENOUGH?

by Nawwar Nabilah Mohd Idrus

Organ donation can be defined as the gift of one’s body parts after death for transplantation. Transplantation is an operation which replaces diseased and defective organs and tissues with healthy ones from donors. The organs and tissues are removed when death has been confirmed by two registered doctors. The doctors involved with certification of death are not involved in the transplant operation.

However, the issue is somehow controversial where some people think that organ donation is a religious objection. Certain groups, like the gypsies, oppose organ donation on religious grounds, but most of the world's religions support donation. Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism recognise organ and tissue donation as the ultimate act of charity and kindness.

On the one hand are those who argue that those who can afford to buy organs are taking advantage of those who are desperate enough to sell their organs. Many suggest this results on the increase inequality of status between the rich and the poor. On the other hand are those who contend that the desperate should be allowed to sell their organs, and that stopping them is simply contributing to their status as impoverished.
In most of cases, organ donation is not possible for reasons of recipient safety, match failures, or organ condition. Even in Spain, which has the highest organ donation rate in the world, there are only 35.1 actual donors per million people, and there are hundreds of patients on the waiting list. This rate compares to 24.8 per million in Austria, where families are rarely asked to donate organs, and 22.2 per million in France, which -- like Spain -- has a presumed-consent system.Minorities including African-Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders and Native Americans are more likely than whites to have certain chronic conditions that affect the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and liver. Certain blood types are more widespread in ethnic minority populations. Because matching blood type is necessary for transplants, the need for minority donor organs is especially high. Being an organ donor can make a big difference, and not just to one person. By donating your organs after you die, you can save or improve as many as 50 lives.