After shoring up its facilities and educating its medical community, Qatar is gearing up for a nationwide promotion on organ donation, portraying it as a heroic act that saves lives.
The need for organ donation in Qatar is growing. Currently, some 500 patients here are on dialysis, 60 of which are on a waiting list for kidney transplants. About 80 people have liver failure, and a dozen of these patients are awaiting transplants.
To address the demand, Qatar is setting up a registry with the names of people who have donated or are willing to donate their organs after death. Residents will also soon be able to document their desire to donate on their personal ID cards and drivers licenses, the Gulf Times reports.
Qatar is the the only country in the world where both nationals and expatriates are put on the same waiting list and on a turn-by-turn basis, Hamad Medical Corporation’s Urology and Transplant Surgery professor Dr Riadh Fadhil said.
Gulf Times reports:
We are the only country that does not discriminate against anyone once an organ is available as we give it to the next person in line,” he said.
He added that the country has also scored a first in sponsoring all the transplant activities offering for free operation for both donor and the recipient.
“We are ensuring equality and justice in our organ transplantation processes and I believe the communities should be willing to pay back by choosing to donate their organs after death,” he noted.
