Organ donation and human dignity

Medical science is one of the sciences that has always had a high influence and prestige throughout history. But what is the reason for this? The reason may be in the sanctity of man in all beliefs and religions. For example, in the Qur’an, life is sacred. God swears by man (Shams, 7) or the salvation of human life is like the salvation of all humanity (Maeda, 32). Organ donation is a phenomenon that came true from a dream in the twentieth century with the advancement of medical science. Organ donation today It can bring life back to a patient suffering from organ failure and give him or her new life, so organ donation is so valuable in human societies that many religious leaders have even spoken of its sanctity and dignity. The person who donates the organ has a high dignity and in this way returns the life to another human being. In our country, in the past decades, organ donation has been accompanied by material rewards.Iran is the only country in the world where the donor is legally allowed to receive money or so-called “sell” his organ. Unfortunately, it has reduced the human dignity of organ donation in society, so that organ donation and d Receiving money has become one of the social’s harms. For many, this is even a symbol of poverty in our society, so that if one becomes financially desperate, one way is to sell the members. The fact is that numerous studies in Iran have shown that those who donate their kidneys are mainly financially motivated and the humanitarian motivation in practice is less. But it should be noted that this person, despite receiving money, eventually saved a person’s life. The sick person returns to the arms of family and society by regaining his health. How can we compare the blessings of this with the money he has received? Is it possible to put a price on this act of the donor? Man, with all his progress, is not even able to make a cell out of that organ, let alone the organ itself. It is true that the donor in our country is mainly concerned with financial issues, but it should be noted that this person can go to other jobs to meet their financial needs, but chose to donate and help the same type. This is very valuable in itself and the community should be grateful to this person. But unfortunately, now our society does not look at this verb with this view. Today, the donor does not feel proud to donate his organ. This is a view that must change in our society through the efforts of doctors, transplant elites and members of society. Many organ donors in our society are not even medically traceable because they have provided incorrect addresses and telephone numbers to transplant centers and do not even go for follow-up after organ donation. In our country, in recent decades, more than 40,000 kidney transplants have been performed, most of them from living donors. These people are a population in the shadows. Efforts must be made to restore dignity to organ donation. Fortunately, in our country, due to the growth of the culture of organ donation from the body, the need for organ donation from a living person has decreased. Currently, more than 50% of kidney transplants are from the body. However, it should be noted that in our country and even in the world, transplantation from a living donor is still an important method to help patients. The issue of organ donation from a living person is raised by various individuals in the press from time to time for various reasons. But the reality is that our society has not yet been able to solve this in practice and in accordance with scientific and moral principles. The kidney transplant system of the living person, which has been introduced as the “Iranian model of kidney transplantation”, certainly has many positive points. But certainly in the field of organ donors it has not been able to maintain their very worthy dignity. This system may have been useful in the past decades due to the country’s specific problems, such as the lack of dialysis facilities or body transplants, but now it needs to be revised and optimized. Our society must take steps in this regard with the help of transplant science elites and health policy makers. This requires taking into account the current needs of society in order to restore human dignity to organ donation from a living person. Hopefully, one day our society will once again look at organ donation from a living person as sacred and sublime. This is certainly achievable, but it requires our efforts that no human is trying (Najm, 39).
Dr. Reza Saidi Firoozabadi – Transplant Surgeon