The issue of organ donation in the UAE has steadily been gathering momentum as more cases of donors and recipients are being recorded. The newest instance of an Emirati woman donating her kidney to her brother, a reaffirmation of the nobility of the human spirit, is also evidence of the UAE’s efforts to provide the most conducive, updated and advanced environment for organ donation and transplantation.
The first law on organ transplants was passed in the UAE in 1993 and since then, the country has made rapid strides in expanding the legislative framework in this field. With organ donations between living family members long allowed in the country, the UAE also mandated organ donations from the deceased since March 2017, and now is establishing a national registry as well as a national transplant list that includes details of patients in need and the organs they require across the country.
With the establishment of a donor registry, the process of getting consent will become easier because residents will be able to record their wish to donate organs after death. Also, anyone in the UAE, regardless of nationality, can become a donor, or receive an organ during a transplant surgery.
These are significant milestones being reached in a highly critical health area which will motivate people to aspire to the highest degree of humanitarianism in saving another’s life through organ donation. Concomitantly, what is also required is a change in society’s attitude towards organ recipients. They are as deserving of a second chance in every aspect of life as is everybody else and they need to be extended every opportunity to reintegrate with the mainstream and realise their potential once again.
