Assessing Countries’ Deceased Organ Donation and Transplantation Performance

@#Introduction: Donors per million population and transplantations per million population are standardized, widely used indicators to assess and compare countries’ performance in organ donation and transplantation. This study aims to investigate these two particular metrics of organ donation and transplantation performance, and to introduce a new index, namely, ‘transplantations per patients on the waiting list’. Methods: Secondary analyses of data on 23 countries in 2016 were used to construct the transplantations per patients on the waiting list indicator for kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, and lung transplantation, as well as for the transplantation of any of the five aforementioned organs. Results: According to the transplantations per patients on the waiting list, the best-performing countries in terms of organ donation and transplantation are Belarus for kidney transplantation, Finland for liver and pancreas transplantation, Australia for heart transplantation, and France for lung transplantation. Considering all five organs together, Sweden, Australia, Finland, Austria, and Poland were the top five best-performing countries, followed by Spain in the sixth position. Conclusion: The deceased transplantations per patients on the waiting list can be an alternative indicator to assess performance, along with the widely-used donors and transplantations per million population, but still has its limitations in certain scenarios.

Muslims’ views on the permissibility of organ donation: The case of Malaysia

Background: Some argue that Malaysia’s extremely low organ donation rate is attributed to religion, specifically Islam. Testing this argument, this study asked Malaysian Muslims their views regarding various issues on organ donation and examined whether their decisions to donate organs are framed by religious beliefs. Materials and Methods: This study investigated the perspectives of Malaysian Muslims between October and December 2013 in Kuala Lumpur. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 900 people, with 829 responses collected (92% response rate). Respondents’ verbal consent was taken before proceeding with the survey. Results: The survey found that more than half of respondents felt that organ donation is permitted in Islam and that it is a communal responsibility. However, the same proportions were unsure on the issues of rewards for organs or on whether Islam permits the procuring of organs from brain dead patients. Conclusions: Malaysian Muslims are not against organ donation; however, encouraging organ donation requires the state to address public concerns on Islam’s views on this sensitive issue through effective policy tools to help address these gaps in Malaysian Muslims’ understanding of organ donation. The organ donation rate could improve by using Islamic scholars as ambassadors for an organ donation drive to convey the message of Malaysia’s urgent need for organ donation.