Islam and end-of-life organ donation.Asking the right questions

Islam and end-of-life organ donation.Asking the right questions

Rady, Mohamed Y.

2009/07/00

English

20090700

Organ transplantation has become an established treatment option for end-stage organ disease. Both living and end-of-life (so called deceased) organ donation narrow the gap between supply and demand for transplantable organs. Advances in human biology prove that death occurs as a gradual process over time and not as a single discrete event. Declaring death with either neurological criteria (heart-beating organ donation) or circulatory criteria (non-heart-beating organ donation) enables the procurement of transplantable organs before human death is complete, namely, from the incipiently dying donor. Thus, surgical procurement of organs from the incipiently dying donor is the proximate cause of death, raising new questions on end-of-life organ donation. It is imperative to first and foremost care for the patient as a dying person. International Muslim scholars should reevaluate previous Islamic rulings and provide guidance about current practice of end-of-life organ donation.

19.5

19.5;1.2;20.2.1

determination of death--[pri];Islamic ethics--[pri];organ donation--[pri]

brain death;cardiac death;Koran;organ transplantation;terminally ill;tissue donation

Saudi Medical Journal2009 July; 30(7):882-886

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC BY-NC).

citation

23 refs

03795284 (print);16583175 (online);Verheijde, Joseph L.