About 99 percent of the donors in Qatar are expatriates because Qataris have not yet accepted the idea of organ donation.
Dr. Yousuf Al Maslamani, head of the Organ Transplant Committee at HMC, in an article about whether doctors should have the legal right to take brain-dead patients off of their ventilators.
One motivation for doctors to do so, Al Maslamani said in an interview with Al Arab, is to use such patients’ bodies for organ transplants. Despite a drive to increase the number of donors here, the country still has a long waitlist of those in need of organs.
Currently, a patient can only be taken off a ventilator and used as an organ donor with his/her family’s permission, which most people are reluctant to give, the doctor said.
The Peninsula translates:
“This year, from January until the end of September there were 78 brain death cases at HMC but we could benefit from only two of those, both of Asians, in terms of organ transplant,” said Al Maslamani.
He said the HMC was trying to promote organ donation by providing incentives to families of the brain-dead people such as financial support to take the body home, free air ticket and accommodation for one of the relatives visiting Qatar and air ticket for those accompanying the body home.
Thoughts?
Credit: Photo by Eva Blue