Parents refuse to honour children’s pledge after their deaths

Star, 15th May 2008

PENANG: Some parents are refusing to honour the pledge of their children who have agreed to donate their organs upon their death.

This is one reason for the low number of cadaveric donors (deceased donors) in the country.

Penang Hospital Nephrology Services head Datuk Dr Rozina Ghazalli said according to Health Ministry records, 112,300 Malaysians had pledged to donate their organs from 1997 till March 31 this year.

“However, the actual donors was only 214 from 1976 till March 31 this year,” she told The Star in an interview here on Tuesday.

Dr Rozina said some parents refused to allow doctors to remove the organs of their beloved ones because they were in doubt of the wishes of the deceased.

“Even if a person pledges his organs, his relatives are still required to give consent upon the donor’s death before the organs can be harvested,” she said.

Dr Rozina said another reason for poor organ harvest was the failure of doctors to explain to the family the meaning of “brain dead” – the patient is technically dead but the family members still want to hold on.

“In such instances, the doctors do not want to be seen as vultures waiting to get the deceased person’s organs or to be seen as not doing their best to save the patient’s life,” she said.

Dr Rozina said although all religions encourage the act of compassion to save lives, Muslims in particular were still reluctant to donate organs.

“They think it is disrespectful for the dead to be buried with organs missing although there is a fatwa which allows Muslims to donate their organs,” she said.

Dr Rozina pointed out that with the numerous campaigns organised by hospitals and the Tissue and Organ Procurement teams in the 16 government hospitals, the number of pledges by Muslims had increased from 2% in 1997 to 12% in 2007.

The highest number of actual donors were Chinese (52.4%), followed by Indians (26.6%) and Muslims (6.1%).

Those interested in becoming a donor can contact the National Transplant Resource Centre at Kuala Lumpur Hospital at 03-2615-6576 / 2694-2704 or the Transplant Resource Centre at Penang Hospital at 04-222-5780.