There are more than 3,000 patients on the national waiting list to receive a kidney transplant, Dr. Faisal Abdulrahim Shahin, Director General of the Saudi Organ Transplantation Center, has said. Not many people are coming forward to enlist as organ donors despite incentives offered by the government, including granting SR50,000 in cash to a live donor or his/her successors, conferring a King Abdul Aziz Third Degree Medal and discounts on air fares in coordination with Saudi Arabian Airlines. The lack of donors has exacerbated the suffering of thousands of patients with kidney and heart related diseases, Al-Madina Arabic daily said. The newspaper said scholars and clerics have underlined the pressing need for a donor card system which would indicate the donor's prior consent. They suggested adding the consent of the donor's immediate family members in the case of a donor having adult children qualified to grant such consent. A number of patients approached by the paper indicated that giving others the gift of life is a religious and human obligation. The mother of a Saudi national, identified only as M.N, said that her son's pain is growing and that she lacks the financial means to buy a kidney from an able-bodied and healthy person. Another Saudi national said she required an organ transplant and lamented the lack of response on the part of prospective donors. Dr. Mohammad Al-Najimi, a member of the Saudi International Jurisprudence Academy, said that all religious authorities permit organ donation and transplants but that certain conditions should be satisfied, including the existence of a true need for the transplant and that no harm must come to either the recipient or the donor. Al-Najimi added that donation should be arranged through high standard hospitals where donated organs may be clinically and scientifically examined and preserved. Selling organs is proscribed by the Shariah (Islamic law), he said. “Recipients can always give gifts to the families of the donors,” he said. “Businessmen should also provide financial assistance to donors,” he said. Dr. Shahin said there were 9700 kidney failure patients in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment at more than 175 centers equipped with 2818 dialysis machines. Four hundred kidney transplant operations are carried out each year in the Kingdom. This number falls short of covering the actual requirements as more than 1,000 transplants are needed each year, Dr. Shahin said. He said that incidents of kidney failure in Saudi Arabia – 115 cases per million people – is low compared with the US and some European countries where the equivalent numbers are approximately 300 cases per million people. The doctor said 500 liver transplants are needed in the Kingdom each year while only 90 are performed. In the case of heart failure, only 15 operations are performed while 60 operations are needed. Dr. Shahin added that efforts made by his center to educate the public on the importance of organ donation have had some positive results. Shahin said a large number of patients travel to China to have kidney and liver transplants despite the attendant risks. “In these cases, prior coordination with physicians is lacking and undergoing the necessary tests to ascertain whether a patient is fit for the transplant is not always done. This is in addition to other economic and social issues which prompt us to seek to achieve self-sufficiency and to perform these operations in the Kingdom,” he said. Dr. Shahin said live donors should also be checked for chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Furthermore, consent given by a donor should be stress-free, with earning Divine rewards being the ultimate motive. Dr. Khaled Bin Abdulaziz Al-Sa'ran, Executive Director at Prince Salman Center for Kidney Diseases, said the Ministry of Health was in the process of expanding and modernizing blood dialysis units. __
